Across the Universe Book 2: Impossibly Real
by AngelDesaray
Summary: You don't have to, but I suggest reading Pieces of Destiny first. Aria, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme left Earth, but they're not where they expected to be. Instead of going back to just before the Clone Wars, they have ended up in the middle of the Original Trilogy, and are already leaving a lasting impact. Will they be able to get everyone out alive? Or make things so much worse?
1. Chapter 1: Captured

**_First off: Disclaimer. I OWN NONE OF STAR WARS BUT I WISH I OWNED THE SKYWALKER BOYS AND A FEW LIGHTSABERS, I REALLY DO! NOR DO I OWN ANY SONG THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS FANFICTION._**

 ** _Second...wooooohooooo! I've been dying to get to this story, this is when things get intense mwahahaha_**

 ** _Don't forget I've got that page on Facebook now. Heck, they saw the cover first lol: AngelDesaray of Fanfiction_**

 ** _PLEASE GUYS YOU'VE GOT TO REVIEW!_**

 ** _ENJOYYYYY!_**

* * *

 _We're in trouble_.

Beside her, Aria heard Anakin groaning as he rolled away, preparing to stand up. She reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him back down into the long grass immediately as she stared where the blonde figure had fallen.

"Where are we? Naboo?" Anakin asked, sounding utterly confused. Aria hardly heard him over the pounding of her heart.

"Everybody shut up," she hissed. "Where are we shouldn't be the question you're asking right now. Obi-Wan, Anakin, hide your lightsabers, _now_!"

"What are you talking about?" Obi-Wan asked, sounding somewhat disgruntled. Aria shot him a sharp, deadly serious look.

"If someone figures out the two of you are Jedi, you're dead where you stand, so don't use them unless _absolutely necessary_. We're not in the Republic, or the Confederacy; we're somewhere else entirely."

Padme stared at her, and Aria noticed all of them hunkered down instinctively at her tone of voice. "How are you so sure?" Padme asked nervously. Right after she spoke they could hear shouting growing steadily closer.

"Because we just scared Luke Skywalker out of that tree over there," Aria said pointedly, gesturing towards the tree the blonde figure had fallen out of. "And I'm positive those voices belong to Stormtroopers, so we don't have much time to figure things out..."

"What things?" Anakin asked sharply, and Aria had to flinch cause he momentarily sounded very _Revenge of the Sith_ there.

"The fact I'm about to try and draw their attention away from Luke, for one," Aria said, already standing up. She could see Luke's blonde head just barely in the tall grass as he slowly made his way towards a bush as inconspicuously as he could. His head kept turning in their direction, but Aria brushed that thought aside and instead focused on the small group of Stormtroopers that were making their way directly towards where Luke was trying to stay hidden.

"Hey!" she shouted, waving her arms wildly to draw their attention.

"Are you _nuts_!" Anakin hissed, trying to pull her back down. She could see Luke's head snap in her direction through the grass, but she purposely ignored both of them. Instead she continued to wave her arms.

"Hey, could you guys help us out? We're a little lost," Aria called, doing her best to keep her tone level. Out of her peripherals, she could see Luke rushing to reach the safety of the bush, apparently deciding not to look a gift eopie in the mouth.

"You're trespassing on government property," one of the Stormtroopers growled, taking a step towards Aria and the others with three of his buddies. The other three kept on the direct course towards Luke, causing sweat to break along Aria's hairline.

"I'm sorry, we didn't know. Like I said, we're lost; could you just point us in the right direction and we'll be on our way," Aria said sheepishly.

"Nice try, but there's a seven-foot electrical fence all the way around the parameter. No one's going to just wander in here on a whim," the Stormtrooper said, pointing his blaster at her in one swift movement and causing Aria's gut to clench in fear. She shrugged, putting her hands up in surrender.

"It was worth a try," she mumbled, the same time one of the other Stormtroopers shouted.

" _Freeze!_ "

It seemed Luke had been spotted despite Aria's efforts.

There was an eruption of movement as Luke tried to make a break for it almost the instant the command left the Stormtrooper's mouth. He made it about five steps before more Stormtroopers appeared from the direction he was headed, and he skidded to a halt; an action that allowed his original pursuers to catch up to him and tackle him to the ground. There was a violent struggle for several moments where the three Stormtroopers and a few from the new group fought to detain Luke before they finally got him in a hold too strong for him to break. Any remaining Stormtroopers circled Aria's group. Aria was pleased to see that Obi-Wan and Anakin had done as she'd suggested and hid their lightsabers, but she could tell Anakin was itching to reach for his. The last thing they wanted right now was to draw attention to _him_ though, so she tried to silently signal to him with her eyes to leave it wherever it was. His jaw clenched slightly, but his hand stopped twitching downwards.

"You're all under arrest," the Stormtrooper rumbled as they were all searched before the five were prodded forward. Aria couldn't help but grimace, glancing over at Luke, who was still struggling against the grip of the Stormtroopers that held him.

 _We're in so much trouble._

* * *

They were lead to a military compound at the heart of the forest, mostly in silence. Since the Prequel Trio were out of their time, they didn't dare say anything lest they accidentally tip off that they didn't belong. Luke eventually stopped struggling and chose to instead calm himself and find his center, keeping his eyes cast downward with his blonde mop of hair hiding most of his face, breathing deep, steadying breaths. Once inside the compound, they were led far below ground along dark, grey hallways with dim lights. The further down they went, the less of a chance of escape Aria felt they had.

Then again, she was in the company of two Skywalkers. Surely she didn't have anything to worry about?

The group was brought to a halt outside of a decently large metal door that slid back after one of the Stormtroopers entered in an access code. They were all unceremoniously shoved into the room, falling to the floor in various spots. Luke and Aria fell in on one side of the room while Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan fell down on the other side, and as they pushed themselves back to their feet the Stormtrooper activated a ray shield that separated the two groups from each other. The door slid back into place, and silence reigned in the room for only a few moments.

"Well this is just great," Anakin exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation. Aria ignored him, holding out her hand to help Luke up off of the ground as he had been the last to be thrown into the holding cell.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

He gratefully accepted her hand, allowing her to heft him to his feet. Aria couldn't help but notice that his hand felt...weird; different. She glanced down just momentarily to note which hand it was, and just as soon as she confirmed it was his right hand he let go, letting his hand drop to his side.

"Yes, I am, thanks," he said steadily, sizing her up for a moment. "And thank you for trying to help."

 _Oh my Force, I'm standing in front of_ **the** _Luke Skywalker._ "I just wish it would have been a little more effective," Aria responded with a wistful smile.

"I'm Luke, Luke Skywalker," he said, unknowingly introducing himself needlessly. "And you are?"

His gaze skimmed over not only Aria, but also the three on the other side of the ray shield as he posed his question. Aria cleared her throat. "I'm Aria, and this is..." she hesitated for a moment, shooting the three a warning look before she slowly introduced each of them. "Padme, Ben, and Victor."

The trio gave her an odd look, as did Luke, though Luke had a different reason for giving her the look she was pinned with. "You're lying," he said simply. "Not completely, but there's a lie in there."

Aria gave him an apologetic look. "For their own safety...I can't give you the guys' real name. It's one of _those_ situations."

Luke nodded slowly, eyeing each of them in turn. "Well...so long as you're not against me...I can respect that."

"We're not," Aria said with such fervor she was positive Luke believed her. She glanced back at Anakin, who was kneeling on the ground inspecting the edge of the ray shield. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for a weakness," he said simply. "They took our weapons, so I'm seeing if there's another way out of here."

"I told you to hide them," Aria said tiredly.

"We did," Obi-Wan said simply, and Aria noticed that Luke stiffened a little at Obi-Wan's voice. That was a voice Luke would remember vividly, though at the same time this was a much more youthful Obi-Wan than Luke had ever seen or heard, so they should be for now. "I don't think they recognized what they were though."

"That doesn't mean a supervising officer won't recognize them. _That's_ what we have to worry about," Aria said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. It was like they had stepped through into a nightmare with no way out.

"If it's not too much to ask," Luke said suddenly from off to the side, causing Aria to turn her full attention back to the young man. "How did you even end up here? One minute there wasn't anything there, and the next there was a really bright flash of light and you were all lying on the ground. What _was_ that?"

Aria bit her lip. "It's kind of a long story—"

She didn't get to say anymore, because at that moment the door slid open once again, causing Luke to snap to full attention, riveting his gaze on the door in anticipation. The ray shield that divided the two from the other three did not deactivate, so Aria was sure she knew who they were there for before the Imperial Officer even stepped into the cell. Four Stormtroopers filed in as well, with two of them grabbing Luke by the arms and the other two restraining Aria as the Imperial approached Luke. Aria could practically _feel_ Anakin tense up in anger when the Stormtroopers touched her, but the three couldn't really do anything about what was happening on the other side of the ray shield.

The Imperial came to a stop in front of Luke, who stood tall and defiant. "Luke Skywalker," the Imperial sneered. " _Hero_ of the Rebellion, the new hope for the Galaxy...how nice of you to join us in _reality_."

Luke said nothing; he simply stared right back at the Imperial, jaw set in firm determination. The Imperial nodded sharply at the door and another Stormtrooper came in, standing next to Luke as the Imperial turned away, casting a disinterested eye in the direction of Aria and the others. "This is how this is going to work," the Imperial said smoothly, and the Stormtrooper punched Luke in the stomach. Luke doubled over with his breath going out in a whoosh, Aria jumped, and Padme let out a short squeak of surprise and disdain. "You're going to answer my questions honestly and immediately. Anything short of that and you will be made to suffer. If you don't cooperate, we will move on to more _drastic_ measures that have already been approved by Prince Xizor just for you."

Luke straightened up again, fixing the back of the Imperial's head with a glare. "I won't say anything," he growled.

The Imperial laughed darkly. " _Hero_ of the _Rebellion_...more like Murderer of _Millions_ ," he spat, turning to get right up in Luke's face. Luke turned his head away, a flicker of a tortured light appearing in Luke's eyes for just a brief moment. "Do you know how many people were on the Death Star when you blew it up? How many... _civilians_? How many _prisoners_ —some _Rebel_ prisoners?"

Luke grit his teeth, glaring at the officer once more. They stared each other down for several moments before the Imperial fired off his first bought of questions. "Where is the Rebel Base?" Luke said nothing, receiving another blow to the stomach. "What were you after, snooping around on this facility? Were you just scouting ahead for another team? Are there others?"

Each time Luke said nothing, and each time he received a swift blow to the stomach for his lack of cooperation. Aria felt herself tensing more and more with every blow, unable to tear her eyes from the brutal interrogation that was happening in front of her. Part of her asked why the Imperial wasn't questioning Aria's group. Surely the Imperial thought that they were Rebels like Luke...didn't he?

Several minutes went by where the Imperial asked questions and Luke refused to answer before it seemed the Imperial finally decided to result to those _drastic measures_ he'd mentioned earlier.

"Apparently you want to do this the painful way. No matter; I'll enjoy hearing you scream. I had a cousin on the Death Star," the Imperial sneered sharply. Luke struggled to break free unsuccessfully as the Stormtroopers pushed him forward. The Imperial turned his gaze onto the other four, signaling to the Stormtroopers that held Aria they could release her before he continued to speak to Luke. "These four don't have any Rebel-like activity on record, so they will at least evade charges of treason, unlike you; a crime punishable by death. I assure you, that's what awaits you; and it will not be a quick death. Prince Xizor has promised as much."

The Imperial turned sharply on his heel, exiting the room with the two Stormtroopers who had been holding Aria flanking him. Aria stared after Luke long after he'd been dragged away, only snapping out of her daze when the door slid shut behind the party. She groaned, leaning against the wall and slowly sliding downwards.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she muttered, loath of the fact her mind was racing to glean as much as she could from what had just happened.

"We have to help him," Padme said weakly, looking pleadingly between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

"What can we do? They can't let it get out they're Jedi or we're all dead where we stand, we don't have the lightsabers to cut out of here...We're kind of powerless right now," Aria responded quietly. She buried her face in her hands. "Uhg...none of this was supposed to happen. We've already messed up time here simply by arriving. Luke should have never been captured here, there would have been a record of it. And Prince Xizor!"

"What about him?" Obi-Wan asked, kneeling at the edge of the ray shield and staring at her in concern.

"Prince Xizor is an arch nemesis of Darth Vader, to make a long story short. He knows how important Luke is to Vader, and has made it his personal mission to bring Luke to a slow and painful end, simply to get at Vader. If Prince Xizor is in charge here, and he knows Luke's being held prisoner..." she said, trailing off and letting the rest be implied. Obi-Wan and Anakin shared a look.

"I'm sure...for now...he'll be fine," Obi-Wan said slowly.

"Do you know anything about Imperial Torture?" she suddenly snapped, causing the pair to blink in surprise. "It makes executions look like a merciful, normal, every-day occurrence. And it's a normal part of Imperial Interrogation. One of their specialty is torturing _Jedi_."

Aria pushed to her feet, starting to pace the room as she chewed on her lip, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. "He's got his mechanical hand...so this is definitely after Episode V, but he also doesn't have a lightsaber, I noticed that; so it's before Episode VI. Considering how he acted and the fact Prince Xizor is still alive, it's got to be just after Episode V; everything that happened on Bespin is still fresh," she muttered out loud.

"I'm sure if his time hasn't come, the Force won't let Luke die," Obi-Wan told her firmly. Aria glanced up at him.

"There are things far worse than death," she said ominously, turning back to her pacing and worrying over Luke. After a few minutes of silence, Anakin suddenly groaned and sank to his knees, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Anakin!" Padme cried, falling to her knees next to him. Anakin was doubled over, panting as if he'd just run several laps around Tatooine.

"Anakin, what's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked in obvious concern.

Anakin looked up at him, giving him a strange look. "You didn't...feel that...that pain?"

Everyone stared at him in confusion. "Anakin, what are you talking about?"

"I felt intense pain...and heard someone screaming..." Anakin said slowly, gripping his head as if he had a sudden headache. "It was like...I was them for a moment...but I don't know what was happening."

"Luke," Aria breathed. Anakin was sensing his son's pain. Of course, it was just slight right now; there was no actual formed bond between the two yet, but they were still related directly by blood. Luke still came directly from Anakin. It was only natural that Anakin would be able to sense Luke's pain at least once.

Obi-Wan looked up at her. "How? I didn't feel anything."

Aria glanced at him. "That falls into the category of 'I can't tell you' I'm afraid," she said sheepishly.

"I don't think now is the time to be keeping secrets," Anakin said harshly from his spot on the floor.

"I don't think now is the time to let those secrets spill either," Aria countered. "We need a way out—with Luke. We can't leave him behind if we do find a way out."

"None of us can afford to be left behind," Obi-Wan said gravely

"You have no idea how true that statement is," Aria said with a grimace, kneeling down in front of Anakin. "Can you sense anything else from him?"

Anakin shook his head. "No...that was all. It was brief but...strong."

Aria looked away, taking several deep, steadying breaths and grabbing the dog tags around her neck as she stood back up, making her way back to where she'd been pacing earlier. "Please, Force, let him be all right," she whispered.

While Aria paced, she occasionally answered whatever questions she could from the three on the other side of the ray shield as they worked to come up with an escape plan. All they could do was wait and pray that Luke eventually returned alive. There was no guarantees it would be in one piece, but so long as he was alive, there was still a chance.


	2. Chapter 2: Leaps of Faith

**_Be forewarned, this has an especially nasty cliffhanger that may be the cruelest cliffhanger I have ever spun together. I apologize that you have to wait for me to update chapters on two other stories before you recieve chapter three, but that is the way that these things work._**

 ** _I suggest you like my Facebook Page, because I plan on teasing all sorts of stuff and putting all sorts of pictures simply for Across the Universe on there. I just have to get to it lol haha. AngelDesaray of Fanfiction_**

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* * *

Hours had to have passed. Aria managed to continue to pace the entire time while the other three took up positions on their side of the cell, sitting down to wait out Luke's arrival. They had drawn up an escape plan that was risky—as all Skywalker plans were—but depended on the state Luke was in when he finally returned; if he ever did. He had to be able to walk, at the very least with help from someone else, for their plan to work. If not, then everything was going to crumble and they'd have to come up with a new escape plan.

The minutes passed by painfully, and Aria felt like every moment that passed where Luke wasn't back in the cell was a moment where a little more air was squeezed painfully out of her lungs.

 _Please, please don't let us have killed Luke Skywalker_ , she found herself thinking a few times. Whenever she did, she made a strangled noise in the back of her throat and her pacing picked up in intensity. She didn't know how much longer her nerves could take the stress of not knowing if he was even going to come back, if their arrival had somehow killed the son of the Chosen One.

After what felt like years, the cell door finally opened. The three on the other side of the ray shield leapt to their feet, and Aria froze in place at the sight of the limp figure held up by his elbows two Stormtroopers were dragging between them. The Stormtroopers tossed him into the cell like a rag doll, promptly shutting the door once more as Aria rushed forward towards Luke's unmoving form. He hadn't even made a sound when he'd hit the ground.

"Luke!" Aria cried, rolling the unmoving Skywalker onto his back. Padme gasped and there was a strange guttural sound that might have come from Anakin.

"In the name of the Core..." Obi-Wan breathed in shock.

Luke was covered in lacerations, burns, bruises, and all sorts of signs of torture. Discolored spots speckled his skin and showed signs of bleeding under the surface, and one of his legs was at an unnatural angle. Aria had seen enough dislocations and bone breaks to know that it was just dislocated, though the dislocation was rather grotesque. Luke's breathing was shallow, ragged, and choppy, he was deathly pale, and he wasn't responding to anything Aria tried. Her hands fluttered uselessly over him for a few moments as she couldn't find somewhere to touch him where she didn't risk hurting him further.

It was one thing to read about these types of wounds and of Imperial Torture; it was quite another to see it in person.

"Monsters," Padme whispered. Aria paid them no heed, her brain scrambling for whatever first aid training she had that might help. Right now, though, she wanted him conscious, even if it hurt him.

"Luke, Luke wake up, talk to me," she said desperately, kneeling by his head and pulling his head gently and carefully into her lap, brushing some of the hair from his face. "Luke, answer me, you've got to wake up."

His head twitched to the side, and Aria gently pulled him a little closer. "Come on Luke, open your eyes, talk, moan, do something, just show me you're still with us."

A very weak gasp burst past his lips, and Aria wilted in relief. "That's it Luke, come on...just open your eyes..." she pled quietly. Slowly, he started to respond, shifting in place a little before the action caused him to gasp again and immediately go still. Sluggishly, Luke cracked his eyelids open, his eyes searching for the owner of the voice coaxing him back to consciousness. He seemed to momentarily think that he was still under interrogation.

"I won't...say anything..." he mumbled out, and Aria felt a painful tug at her heart at his mumbled words.

"You're safe now Luke, just...take it easy, keep talking to me," she murmured, looking over his injuries. His leg was bleeding rather profoundly, and the first thought in her mind was to stop the bleeding. She unzipped and shrugged off her jacket, tying it tightly around his leg so it would act like a tourniquet, Luke cried out when she tightened the jacket to make sure it was secure, and she grimaced. "Sorry Luke...I'm just stopping the bleeding," she apologized, straightening back up to comfortingly run her fingers through his hair, massaging little circles on his head. Luke's eyes were all the way open now, filled with pain but aware of his surroundings.

"Aria..." he murmured when his eyes fell on her. He tried to sit up, but his face twisted in pain and Aria pushed him back down.

"Don't move, just...take it easy. Try to relax and lay still; don't strain yourself," she told him soothingly, still massaging little circles on his head. Her parents had done that for her when she was little and sick, and it was one of the few things she could do to help make him feel better. "Try to stay awake though...just to be safe."

Luke's eyelids fluttered a little, but managed to keep his eyes open a little longer, fixing Aria with a state of confusion and curiosity. "Who...are you?" he managed to ask. There were several questions wrapped into the simple phrase. Where did you come from? Who are you really? What are you doing here? Why are you helping me?

"A friend," Aria said gently, carefully peeling back his shirt to examine the damage to his chest. It wasn't pretty, and there were several bruises. It looked like he had a few broken ribs too, and Aria could only pray he didn't end up with internal bleeding. "Just try to rest right now, okay? You need to save your strength and you don't want to injure yourself any more than you already are" she told him in a quiet voice.

"Easier...easier said than...than done," Luke murmured between his labored, choppy breaths. "I...don't know if...if I can make it...make it through...this one."

"Don't say that," Aria said sharply, pausing in her soothing movements for a moment before she resumed the gentle massaging circles. "You'll be fine, okay? Deep breaths..."

Luke didn't say anything. He simply let his eyelids droop close and did as she suggested, taking as deep of breaths as he could in his current state. He was still restless, and it was obvious he needed something to distract him from the pain. Aria licked her lips nervously, keeping a close eye on his labored breathing. Behind her, she could hear the other three talking in hushed voices.

"Can't either of you do something for him?" Padme whispered to Obi-Wan and Anakin.

"Not from the other side of this ray shield," Obi-Wan informed her gravely.

"I think we're going to need a new escape plan," Anakin added quietly.

"We have to see if he will even survive first," Obi-wan responded seriously. "His presence in the Force is...weak, very weak."

Anakin sighed. "I know. He was a luminous spot in the Force before he went in for the interrogation, and now..."

"Well...Aria's tactics are helping, however slight the improvements may be," Obi-Wan replied.

"I do hope he'll be all right," Padme said in hushed tones.

"I think we all do," Anakin told her.

Aria pushed their conversation out of her mind, turning her attention back to Luke. _How can I help distract him from the pain_?

She chewed on her lip a few times before she finally came to a decision, reaching down and taking his hand in hers to squeeze it reassuringly before she started singing in soft, gentle tones.

"There was a time, I used to look into my father's eyes in a happy home; I was a king I had a golden throne. Those days are gone, now the memories are on the wall. I hear the sounds from the places where I was born. Up on the hill across the blue lake, that's where I had my first heart break. I still remember how it all changed. My father said...don't you worry, don't you worry child; see heaven's got a plan for you. Don't you worry, don't you worry now, yeah..."

* * *

Time slowly slipped by, and Luke's condition continued to worsen. Aria soothed him in any way she could think of, singing any song that came to mind that could be comforting and continuously massaging his head while she prayed for someone—anyone—to appear and get him the medical treatment he was in dire need of. Hope that he would make it dropped significantly when Luke suddenly lurched to the side and coughed up a disturbing amount of dark, congealed blood. Aria helped him get comfortable again, lifting his shirt up to see he was gaining a dark purple spot on his chest.

 _Internal bleeding_ , Aria realized with dread, _it must have been delayed_.

Luke moaned softly; even his voice was getting weaker. "It feels like...everything's...slipping away..." he murmured. "I...I don't think...think I'll make it..."

"Don't talk like that," Aria said sharply. "You're going to make it, just hold on."

"No I'm...I'm going to...to die. Xizor...gave the order...order to not...treat me...leave me for...for dead," Luke gasped out, coughing out more blood. Aria forced him to lie back down.

"Don't strain yourself, you'll make it worse," Aria said gently. "Just breathe..."

While Luke sucked in labored breaths, Aria chewed on her lip, entertaining an idea in her head she wasn't entirely sure she should suggest. What other choice did they have though? It was a long shot, and it was truly desperate...but it was possibly the only chance Luke had right now.

"Call your father," she told him softly. Luke jerked in surprise, and Aria grimaced at the spasm of pain that came from the movement.

" _ **What?**_ " he rasped, staring at her in wide-eyed shock.

"I know about your father, and if you reach out to him, he's a superior and can get you medical attention—"

"If he...comes here, I'll be...be better off... _ **dead**_ ," Luke said rather strongly for his current state.

Aria scowled lightly. "Luke, it's the only way you'll live; don't let pride get you killed. He may not be in the right, but the last thing he wants is you dead."

"How would... _you_ know?" Luke asked with a somewhat venomous tone of voice. She was treading in dangerous waters, but she had to do _something_.

"I have my ways, but that's not important right now. What _is_ important is that if you ask for his help he will make _sure_ you get medical attention. Besides, if he wanted you dead—if there wasn't _any_ good in him—you'd have been dead a _long_ time ago. If you call him, he _will_ _**take care of you**_."

Luke turned his head away, struggling to gasp in air. He coughed up more blood, and Aria helped him to clear his airway. "Even if...if I wanted to...reach him, I-I don't...don't know how—" He cut off, hit with a sudden spasm of pain that left him gasping again.

"You've done it before," Aria said shakily. "With Leia. Just...open yourself to the Force and reach out to his presence; you know what it feels like by now."

Luke met her gaze, and Aria saw a flicker of fear in his eyes for the first time. "He'll...try to turn me," Luke whispered.

"We'll worry about that part when we get there; you need to live first...please Luke," Aria said quietly. "You can't die now."

For a few tense moments, Luke didn't respond, and Aria feared that he wasn't going to take the leap of faith. His breathing got worse for a few moments, and it seemed he struggled even to get the slightest amount of air in his lungs. Aria could tell, though, that it was because of his tumultuous emotions that were starting to affect him physically as well. He closed his eyes, taking several jagged, shallow breaths.

"Father...please..." he suddenly whispered, pausing to gasp in pain as his body was wracked with pain yet again. " _Help me!_ At...at Hapes..."

Aria let out a long breath of relief, keeping a secure hold on Luke as Luke's eyes fluttered open once more. "I felt...I heard...him..." Luke managed to say.

"He'll come; you'll be all right," Aria said fervently, still massaging soothing circles on Luke's head. "Just hold on Luke, take it easy, relax...and hold on..."

In the silence that followed, Aria let her mind wander slightly. Darth Vader was coming here, and she had Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme right next to her. Hopefully Vader would be too distracted by Luke's dire state to notice the three off to the side; it would be nice to have something go right. Though just to be safe...

Aria turned her attention to the three on the other side of the ray shield at long last to find that they were all watching the pair intently. "When he gets here...stay out of sight. And I suggest masking your presences. Padme's too if you can manage it," Aria said quietly. Luke stirred in her arms at her words, but Aria kept talking. "We can't risk him noticing _any_ of you."

"What..." Luke said slowly, but Aria shushed him.

"Don't speak, just rest," she scolded him lightly. She teetered on the edge of answering his unspoken question for a few moments. "Ben and Victor...they're Jedi," she said quietly.

Luke's eyes flew open in shock, and Aria had to hold him down and pray he didn't hurt himself too horribly. He just needed to last long enough for Vader to reach them. "Jedi—but...Yoda said..."

"Yoda doesn't know about them yet," Aria said quietly, clasping his hand tightly in her own in a gesture of support, as if holding his hand as tightly as she was would keep him grounded to the world of the living. "This is a topic for later. Right now, you _need_ to _rest_."

Luke reluctantly settled back into her lap, but now his gaze kept flickering over to Obi-Wan and Anakin whenever he decided to use his strength to take another look at them. Aria kept fighting him, forcing him to lie still and save as much of his strength as he could. He slowly got worse, coughing up more blood as his breathing turned steadily shallower. His breathing constantly hitched and became jagged as the time passed, and he was struggling to retain consciousness; a fact that concerned Aria deeply. She didn't know how far Vader was, or if Vader could even possibly cross however many light-years away from them he currently was in time to save his son, but she hoped that he would beat all of the odds and arrive in time.

* * *

After a while, maybe a few hours—it was impossible to tell how much time was passing in this cell—Luke lost consciousness and no longer responded to Aria's attempts to keep him awake. Her stomach plummeted far south at the change, and dread started to fill every fiber of her being.

"Come on...where are you," she muttered to herself, staring anxiously at the door as she checked Luke over again to see if there was any external bleeding she needed to put pressure on to try and lengthen Luke's time. There wasn't; all of the bleeding that was doing the damage was under the surface, out of sight.

She kept a vigilant watch on Luke, and the three on the other side of the ray shield knew better than to distract her. They kept their hushed conversations about Luke's state of being, the dark world they had entered, the mystery surrounding Luke's father, and possible alternative escape plans between themselves, obviously taking care not to let their discussions bother Aria as she worried herself over Luke's condition.

No Stormtroopers, droids, or Imperial Officers came to check on them. Aria felt bile rise in her mouth of the thought that they had purposely tortured Luke to the brink of death, then left him to rot in the cell. They probably hoped to find him dead in the morning, and it was all because of Prince Xizor's orders.

Secretly, Aria hoped that Vader gave them a slow and painful death for doing this to Luke. She didn't want any part of it, and she was normally against cold-blooded murder, but this time they would have it coming to them.

Fearfully, as the minutes—hours, however much time was passing—slipped on by, Aria watched Luke's breathing get shallower...slower...more labored...more painful...thinner...

Luke stopped breathing.

For a few seconds, Aria froze and her heart stopped beating in her chest. Then she snapped into action.

"No, no, no, no, no..." she said over and over again, lying Luke down flat on the floor. Behind her, Padme covered her mouth in silent horror, turning into Anakin to try and hide herself from the horror of what was happening in front of her. Aria tilted Luke's head back, opening his airway as much as she could and checking his pulse. It was weak, but for now it was still there. Shakily, Aria fell back on her CPR training, leaving out the chest compressions since he still had a heartbeat for now and because she was afraid to make the internal bleeding in his chest somehow worse than it already was. Her attempts seemed futile to her as she tried over and over again to breathe air back into Luke's lungs, to keep the air cycling in and out of him. In between her breaths of air, she repeatedly checked his pulse, and cried out in horror when she found that she couldn't find a pulse either. Internal bleeding or not, she had to get his heart beating again.

"Come on Luke, stay with me. You are not allowed to die, come _on_!" Aria said as she did compressions on Luke's chest at a rate she had never thought was humanly possible. She alternated between chest compressions and breathing air into his lungs, praying that he would respond, that his heart would sputter back to life. He remained unmoving.

Behind her, she barely managed to hear Anakin whisper, "I feel so _cold_..."

" _Come on!_ " she shouted at Luke, still fighting to get his heart started again.

Suddenly there was a loud squeal of straining metal that was agony on their eardrums, the sound of shouting from just outside the door, and then the metal door was gone, violently ripped from its spot in the wall and tossed back into the hall to land in a twisted heap with a thud and loud, sickening crunch.


	3. Chapter 3: Healing Process

_**I am exhausted now...this chapter has been written from 12:30 Pm, to about 10:30 Pm...I apologize if there's something that doesn't make sense, point it out and I'll either tell you it comes later, it was adressed somewhere else, or I'll fix it, it all depends...**_

 _ **I'm soooo tired now...but I'm glad this chapter is out there...I had soooo much fun with this, cause guys, I think this is the first time I have ever written Vader. I've thought about it, and it is the first time I've written Darth Vader. I'm pretty excited :D**_

 _ **sooo...there's my page...go check it out: AngelDesaray of Fanfiction**_

 _ **PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review...**_

 _ **En...joy...**_

 _ **(And for me, goodnight lol I've hit the point of exhaustion)**_

* * *

Darth Vader was in his meditational chamber aboard his personal cruiser _The Executor_ when it happened.

 _The Executor_ was stationed above Onderon at the moment, as Vader was under orders to see that Jyrenne Base was making progress in its recovery from the Rebel attack roughly a year ago. He'd found time to isolate himself and meditate on a sudden bright flare in the Force, resulting in the light side suddenly gaining tremendous strength. Curious as to the source of such a flare, Vader had taken to his meditation chamber in the hopes of finding where the flare had originated from. After a few hours of deep meditation, where the presences continued to dance just out of his grasp, he'd suddenly felt another presence of light reach out to him. Vader had instinctively shied away before he'd realized—with no shortage of incredulity—that the presence was Luke.

His son was reaching out to _him_?

Hesitantly—not quite sure why the boy was reaching for him _now_ —Vader stretched back towards the presence that was crossing who knew how many light-years to reach him. Immediately Vader was hit by a wave of pain, such as Vader had not felt in years. He gasped in surprise, but was not given enough time to wonder what was going on before his son's feeble voice suddenly whispered into his mind.

 _Father...please,_ the youth's voice said, as faint as a spring breeze. An even larger wave of agony crashed over the boy, causing Vader to double over from the intensity of the torment that came from the boy. _Help me!_

"Luke!" Vader called back instinctively. Was the youth still open enough to the Force to hear him? "Where are you?" he demanded.

 _At..._

Luke's voice drifted off for a moment, and Vader was alarmed by how faint the boy's presence was, and not just because of the distance between them. " _Luke!_ "

 _At...Hapes..._

"Luke!" Vader called again, but this time he received no answer, and Luke's presence slipped away in an agonized wave. For a moment, Vader just sat staring at the stark white wall of his meditation chamber.

His son was terribly injured, he was afraid, and he was desperate enough to reach out to Vader for help. It had felt as if his son was battling against death, fighting to hold onto life.

As soon as that thought crossed Vader's mind, he was moving again, lowering that infernal helmet back onto his head before he opened the chamber and turned to his viewscreen, rising from the meditation chamber as he contacted Admiral Piett.

Piett hid his surprise well. "My Lord, the reports you asked for—"

"I do not care about the reports Admiral," Vader snapped, causing Piett to snap his mouth closed before he could say anything that might possibly anger his obviously furious superior. "Have my personal shuttle ready for me before I reach the hangar, or I will execute everyone onboard this ship."

To Piett's credit, he did not sputter like most officers in the past tended to do. He was obviously surprised, but he spoke graciously and promptly. "Yes Lord Vader."

He turned to deliver the orders before the connection was even cut.

* * *

The instant Hapes appeared in his shuttle's viewport, Vader searched through the Force for his son. Initially, he found nothing, and Vader feared he might have been too late. A second, more thorough search and Vader was able to locate the faint flickers that made up Luke's presence. Immediately, Vader angled the shuttle in the direction he could feel Luke and pushed the ship as fast as it could go. He could feel Luke's minimal time slipping away, and suddenly the shuttle, even with all of Vader's personal modifications, was no longer fast enough.

With a growing sense of fury and dread, Vader realized that he was headed towards a military base on Hapes that just happened to be under Prince Xizor's control. Vader's fury reached a new high, but he forced himself to bottle up the anger until after he managed to secure Luke's safety.

He entered the atmosphere, and so focused was he on his goal he almost didn't realized the base was hailing him. Vader flipped the communication on in aggravation; he didn't have time for Impeiral protocol right now.

"ST-321 code clearance blue, I do not have time for your precious protocol," Vader snarled into the communication device before anything could be said. The fear coming from the other end at his infamous breathing and dominating voice was palpable as they stuttered out a reply.

"Y-y-yes L-lord V-vader, you're c-cleared to land."

"I want to speak to whoever is in charge of this facility, and I want him there by the time I land," Vader growled menacingly. The base was already within sight, but he still expected the weak-willed _fool_ who had allowed his son to be harmed to scramble on his hands and knees at Vader's feet the moment he disembarked his shuttle. Even if he begged, Vader had no intention of letting the man live after he told Vader what he needed to know, no matter how important he may be.

Vader landed the shuttle, bringing the ramp down and disembarking the ship before it had even finished powering down, his cape billowing ominously behind him. A disheveled officer was standing at attention, waiting for him at the end of the ramp while Stormtroopers rushed into place at a salute.

"L-lord Vader, this is a m-most unexpected—" the officer started to say, but he was quickly cut off as Vader raised a hand and constricted the man's airway, taking care to leave just enough room for the man to answer Vader.

"You may dispense with the pleasantries," Vader snarled, stepping closer to the choking, trembling officer. "Are you the officer in charge?"

"Y-yes," he gasped out.

"Are you in charge of interrogations?" Vader growled.

"N-no M-my Lord," he forced out. Vader allowed his grip to lax just a little.

"Who _is_?" Vader snarled.

"P-P-Patr...Patro!"

"Do you know of the prisoner Luke Skywalker?" Vader barked.

Realization dawned on the officer, as did the hope that perhaps he would be spared if he provided this particular piece of information.

"Y-Yes, h-he was cap-captured y-yester-terday. Detention—in cell block 19-48 w-with f-four tress-esspass-sers," the man gasped out.

"You've been most...helpful," Vader said evenly, crushing the man's windpipe with an effortless clench of his fist. The man's body fell ungracefully to the floor, and Vader spun around, pointing at a random Stormtrooper in the line who jumped at becoming the Sith Lord's new focus. "You, find Patro, and bring him to _me_."

The Stormtrooper snapped to attention. "Y-yes My Lord!" With that, he scampered off, and Vader thundered off in the opposite direction, where he could sense Luke's rapidly fading presence. He was running out of time...

The Force guided him through the maze of halls that led deep underground, and for the first time Vader found himself disgusted by how long it took to reach the detention center, hindered by a design he had once found efficient and useful. Now it just made him want to crush a few more windpipes.

When he entered the detention center, the officer inside and two Stormtroopers snapped to a startled but immediate attention. "Lord Vader! Wh—"

"Open cell block 19-48, immediately," Vader snapped, brushing past the officer.

"My Lord, we have strict orders—"

"Whoever's orders they are, consider them officially over-ridden, or it will be you on the receiving end of the consequences of the _incompetence_ that has ensued here," Vader thundered, following the two Stormtroopers down the hall he knew his son was in. Instead of Luke's presence getting stronger, it was rapidly deteriorating, which—

Suddenly, Vader could no longer feel his son in the Force. Luke was just...gone.

Vader's step faltered. "The block! _NOW_!" Vader roared, causing the two Stormtroopers to break into a run towards the end of the hall. Vader remained just behind them in a fury-induced haze. Instead of waiting for them to activate the door, Vader reached out with the Force, channeling his anger into ripping the door that stood in the way of him and his son out of its place in the wall, tossing the door aside and remorselessly crushing the two Stormtroopers in the progress.

Vader froze at the sight that he found inside. His son lie, broken, surrounded by splatters of blood, unmoving as a young girl tried in vain to resuscitate him, attempting to breathe air into his lungs and get his heart pounding again with basic CPR. She seemed unfazed by the fact he had just ripped the door out of the wall, too focused on trying to save his son. Vaguely he noted that there were three people standing on the other side of the cell, separated by a ray shield, but he didn't even spare them a glance. Instead, he pushed the girl out of the way and kneeled beside his son, pulling him into his arms with a tenderness that even surprised Vader.

"Luke," he rumbled. He was already getting to his feet when the girl surprised him by standing up sharply and taking a step towards him.

"Lord...Vader," she said haltingly, like she was trying to figure out what to say. Vader fixed her with a glare anyone else would have shrunk under, even if it was hidden by his mask. This girl actually stood straighter. He had to give her credit; she was either extremely stupid or impressively brave. "H-he has internal bleeding in his chest, and...a severed artery in—"

"You can tell the medics what you know of his condition," Vader said shortly. He had no time for the explanation now; she could give it herself to the medic. First she had to keep up. If not, then the Stormtroopers would put her back in a cell—with a door. Once she had served her purpose she would be returned to a cell anyway. Vader turned on his heel, putting the girl firmly behind him. "Come," he rumbled, and then he disappeared out the door, Luke held firmly and gently in his arms.

* * *

Aria wilted in relief once Vader had left the room, and it didn't take long for Anakin to voice his thoughts.

"Are you _insane_? He's a _Sith_!" Anakin said, standing flush against the ray shield.

"I know what I'm doing," Aria mumbled back. Did she really? For a few seconds there she had been sure Vader would just strangle her and be done with her.

"I don't think you do," Obi-Wan said seriously.

She ignored him and rushed to the door, glancing worriedly at Vader's rapidly disappearing back. She did not believe she would be able to keep up with him, and she had no clue where the medical facility was. If she wanted a chance, she had to leave now; there was no time for anything else. She ducked her head back into the cell.

"I have to catch up to him," Aria said in a rush. "I...I'll get you three out of here too."

"Aria, this is crazy!" Anakin exclaimed, but she cut him off.

"I can't explain now, you just have to trust me, I know what I'm doing. I know more about what's going on here than you do, and I know he's a Sith, but I know he's an honorable person nonetheless, and I know...I know what I'm doing, I'll get you guys out of here too, I promise."

Before they could protest any further, Aria turned and rushed down the hall, running as fast as her legs could carry her after Vader.

* * *

Vader paced restlessly outside of the medical room, his head fixed on the medical droids and doctors that hovered over Luke, working restlessly. It had only been a few moments, and under Vader's constant, fury driven orders they had managed to resuscitate him, but they were struggling to hold him to the world of the living. They were in need of a blood type match for a transfusion he was in desperate need of, and by the amount of excess blood from the internal bleeding they were draining from his chest, Luke would need that transfusion soon.

The girl from the cell stood well out of his way, but right within view of Luke. Her nervousness and genuine concern came off of her in waves, but it did nothing to help Vader's own concerns.

At least she wasn't getting in his way.

The head doctor came out of the room, looking tired and worn. To everyone's surprise, it was the girl who spoke first.

"What blood type does he need?" she asked, walking up to the doctor. The doctor stared at her in disbelief, his gaze darting fearfully towards Vader. Vader didn't say anything; he was curious as to where the girl was going with this, but he was sure he had a good idea, and if it meant Luke would get better he wasn't going to argue.

"Um...just...give me your finger and I'll...compare your blood types," he murmured. The girl complied, and after a few moments the doctor nodded. "You're compatible," he told her.

"Take what you need, I'll donate," she said somewhat forcibly.

"Of course...of course," the doctor said. "Whatever will help him right now...I was coming to say his chances were looking slim, but...I'd say they're getting better, now."

"I think I know someone else who might be compatible...possibly two other people," the girl said, though Vader noticed she hesitated quite a bit and seemed fearful to mention the other two. Vader frowned behind the mask.

"We'll probably need the donation. Who?"

"I...I have three friends that are here with me...but back in the detention block. I think two of them just might be compatible, if someone's willing to go get them," she said, her voice morphing into a mumble near the end. Vader's eyes narrowed behind his mask and he studied her very, _very_ closely. He couldn't sense any ulterior motives, and she wasn't Force Sensitive.

He decided to let it slide. She was willing to donate blood to his son, and had two more friends who could possible provide blood as well. He would tolerate her...for now.

"I will have an officer go and get your...friends," Vader said slowly. The doctor nodded.

"I'll go get the stuff for the transfusion," he said, easily ducking away. The girl stared through the glass towards Luke, obviously lost in thought. Vader watched her closely.

"Why were you in the detention block?" he rumbled.

She turned to face him fully when she answered him; a sign of respect. Good. "We were lost. And winding up on government property isn't a good thing. One thing led to the other..." she trailed off, casting her gaze back towards Luke. There was something about that look that didn't sit well with Vader.

"Are you a Rebel?" Vader asked sharply. The girl shook her head immediately.

"Neither Imperial, nor Rebel. Kind of neutral...kind of like Mandalore during the Clone Wars," she said.

Once more, Vader sensed no deception, which frustrated him to no end. There was something...off about this girl, right down to the strange clothes she wore, but every time he poked at the issue, he couldn't figure out just what it was. Before Vader could ask another question, the girl asked a question of her own, and he was surprised by the pure conviction in her voice.

"Xizor's going to pay for this, right?" she asked, turning her gaze back toward Vader. Vader visibly bristled.

"Xizor?" he asked sharply. He stomped up to the girl, grabbing her by the front of the shirt and shaking her rather violently. "What does he have to do with all of this? _What do you know_?"

The girl was—understandably—trembling like she was about to fall to pieces. "Luke told me that Xizor—he was the one who gave the order for Luke to be left for dead after...after he was interrogated," the girl said, her voice miraculously steady even though her eyes were wide with terror.

Vader released her, stalking towards the glass that separated Luke from them. "Oh...he'll pay all right. If anything happens to Luke, Xizor will suffer ten-fold what Luke has suffered," Vader muttered darkly to himself, already dreaming up dark fantasies of the gruesome death he would make sure Xizor was dealt, whether the Emperor liked it or not. Another presence joined them, and Vader whipped around to see a knobby kneed officer appear.

"M-m-my Lord, y-your cruiser ha-has arrived as per y-your request," the officer stuttered.

"Tell Admiral Piett that I want Skywalker _well_ taken care of while I am gone; if anyone lays a _finger_ on him, they will have _me_ to answer to," Vader growled. "And get that Patro in the hanger as well; I need to have a... _conversation_ with him."

The officer visibly trembled at the murderous tone in Vader's voice. "Y-y-yes My Lord."

Vader glanced at Aria, pursing his lips behind his mask distastefully. He supposed he needed to give the girl and her friends some sort of... _compensation_ for their willing services to save his son's life, since they weren't Rebels or enemies.

"One more thing," Vader growled at the officer, who went rigid at Vader's commanding voice once again, obviously petrified that he would slip up and make a fatal mistake before he could finally slip away. "Make sure this girl and her three companions receive adequate care as well; I want them well taken care of..."

Vader turned back to the girl, inclining his head just slightly. "In return for your...services."

The girl bowed as graciously as he assumed was possible for her—she was no royal, but she still managed to pull of the respectable motion. "Thank you Lord Vader," she murmured humbly.

The officer scampered out of the room, and Vader growled low in his throat, stalking off in the direction of the hanger.

He felt like throttling a few people to relieve some of this stress...

* * *

Anakin paced restlessly in the cell. He felt like pulling out his hair and screaming, but he couldn't very well do that in front of Obi-Wan. There was no door to the cell, no soldiers or officers in the hall, and they were held back from freedom—and getting Aria as far away from that Sith as possible—by a kriffing _ray shield_.

"Pacing isn't going to help the situation Anakin, we need to think this out, and find a reasonable alternative," Obi-Wan said calmly.

" _Reasonable alternative?_ " Anakin asked incredulously. "Aria is from another galaxy where are lives are a movie, Luke Skywalker just died in front of our eyes, his father is a _Sith Lord_ , and Aria just willingly went with said Sith Lord. What, about this entire situation, is _reasonable_!"

"She had a point when she left that she knows more about this world than we do," Padme suddenly snapped from the benches, startling the two Jedi. Padme stood up sharply. "She knows Luke and this Darth Vader better than any of us, and there are obviously several key pieces of this puzzle that we're missing. She knew that he would come for Luke, she knew that he would do all that he could to save Luke, so now I say that we trust that she knows what she's doing. So far, she hasn't been wrong. She snuck you two passed Jedi murderers, and kept Luke alive far longer than he should have, and she just spoke up to a Sith Lord without getting impaled by a lightsaber. If Luke, who literally just met her, can trust her enough to take a leap of faith and contact his _Sith Lord_ father for help, I'm sure that you two can trust her to find a way for us to get out of this."

Anakin opened and closed his mouth a few times, just on the brink of saying something when suddenly an Imperial Officer, flanked by four white armored soldiers, appeared in the hallway. One of the soldiers deactivated the ray shield, and the Imperial Officer stepped into the room with a slight scowl on his face.

"Lord Vader has requested your release. We will be escorting you to the medical ward, as per his orders, to join your friend," the officer said, looking like it pained him to say such words. Anakin raised an eyebrow.

"Why are we going to the med ward?" Anakin asked suspiciously.

"Something about a blood transfusion for _Skywalker_ ," the officer said, sniffing out Luke's last name disdainfully. Anakin's expression darkened noticeably, and he saw the officer shift uncomfortably. Padme came up behind him and gently grasped his arm.

"Ani," she murmured lightly so that only he could hear. "They'll bring us right to Aria...we might as well go with them."

"But Aria said we couldn't risk Vader seeing us," Anakin murmured back.

"I have a feeling Vader isn't there anymore," Obi-Wan muttered back. He straightened slightly, stepping to the front of their group. "Lead the way then."

* * *

Aria sat in the room beside Luke's unconscious form, ignoring the needle in her arm the best she could and instead staring at Luke's battered and broken body. She hated needles, so it had taken a little leap of faith of her own to find the courage to say she would do the transfusion. They had patched Luke up as much as they could, but they wanted to do the transfusions before they put him in the bacta tank to heal the worst of the wounds. Aria had already given one pint, and she was in the process of giving her second. Out in the hall, Admiral Piett watched her with a sharp eye; a fact she found disconcerting.

Not nearly as heart stopping as her conversation with Vader had been, if it could even be considered a conversation. She had been utterly petrified that he would lose patience with her and just snap her neck or something, but at the same time she'd been consumed with worry over Luke and even a little thirsty for revenge against Xizor; that was why she'd mentioned the Prince's involvement in the first place. She was absolutely shocked that he was going to free them from the detention center and provide them with a room though; she had not expected that at all. It seemed so out of character for him, she wondered if it was a trap. At the same time, how could it be? Maybe he did see it as a way to _compensate her for her services_ , and she should just choose not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The doctor removed the needle from her arm, and Aria stood up gratefully. "Thank you," Aria mumbled. Her eyes didn't leave Luke's form. "If it's all right...I'd like to stay with him," she told the doctor. He stared at her strangely for a moment.

"You're going to need rest after the donation you just made," he warned.

"I can sleep here, it doesn't bother me," Aria said quickly.

"I do not believe that is up to me," the doctor said just as three more figures appeared on the other side of the glass. Aria shot to her feet, casting one last glance at Luke.

"I'll be right back," she said in a rush, hurrying out of the room. She found herself in Anakin's arms the next second, caught in a bone crushing hug.

"You're absolutely crazy, you know that, right?" he asked her gruffly.

"I've known for a long time," she gasped. "But right now I can't breathe!"

He let her go, placing her back on the ground. "How did you—" he started to ask, but Aria cut him off.

"I told you I knew what I was doing. But, there was a condition to getting you three out of there," she said sheepishly, turning back to the doctor as he came through the door. "Luke still needs some more blood for a blood transfusion, and I might have said some of you might be compatible."

"So you volunteered us for a donation?" Padme asked dubiously.

"Only if you're compatible of course," Aria said in a rush. The doctor approached them.

"I'll just test to see if your blood types are compatible first," the doctor said. The three did so without complaint, and Aria had to avoid constantly looking over at Piett, who was watching them closely. No doubt Vader had told the Admiral to keep an eye on them; they'd have to be careful.

It was no shock to Aria, but Padme and Anakin were both compatible. The doctor led them all inside the room, where Luke was lying still and unmoving, bacta patches, braces, tubes, and several other medical devices hooked up to him. They'd finally stopped draining the excess blood from the internal bleeding out, so that one wasn't there anymore, and whatever had been the source of the bleeding had been sealed. Still, Luke was in bad shape.

"Is he going to make it?" Padme asked softly as she sat down, rolling back her sleeve to allow the doctor to start drawing blood.

"That's up to him now, I'm afraid. There's little more we can do."

Aria turned towards him sharply. "But you told Vader—"

"What I told Lord Vader was true; his chances have improved. It's still up to him though," the doctor said calmly. Aria frowned, moving over to Luke and sitting down beside him, sliding her hand into his unresponsive one.

"Come on Luke...we've made it this far, just stay with us," she muttered, squeezing his hand. "Just a little longer..."

* * *

It was a relief that the next few days passed without incident. Aria stayed vigilant by Luke's bedside, though the other three retired to the room that had been prepared for them on the base frequently. Their stuff had been returned, but the trio kept it safely out of sight in the room, and never carried their lightsabers in sight just for safety's sake. Luke's blood transfusions had been a success, and the bacta had worked wonders, but he still wasn't awake. Piett kept a constant eye on them, and on one of the nights when Aria found herself alone with the others she managed to explain the severity of staying out of Vader's eyesight. She made sure to stress that he would recognize them immediately—though Aria figured Vader had more of a chance to recognize Padme than his younger self, or even Obi-Wan—and that it wouldn't end well for any of them.

As for Vader, he had been off planet practically the entire time. He'd apparently—according to Piett—had to take some time to locate Xizor before he could kill the Prince, but Xizor was, in fact, now dead.

Today, Aria sat with Luke once more, though the other three were resting in their room; they'd been with her the entire night before, and were rather exhausted. Aria, however, refused to leave Luke's side for anything. He was still on a drip, predictably, and there was still several scars and a nasal cannula tube on, but he was doing much better. His color was much better, and his breathing had finally evened out. He was still unconscious, and Aria was waiting for him to finally wake up. Piett had announced earlier that Vader would be returning today, and she worried what would happen to them once Vader did return. What would Piett tell Vader about Aria and the other three that he had observed? Had Obi-Wan and Anakin really managed to avoid falling onto any Jedi detecting radar in this facility?

Aria sighed, rubbing her thumb along the back of Luke's hand, staring rather unseeingly at his face. Not for the first time, she'd started singing halfway to stay awake and halfway in the hopes that maybe Luke could hear her and it would bring him a little closer to coming back to the land of the living.

"...Please come now, I think I'm falling, I'm holding on to all I think is safe. It seems I found the road to nowhere, and I'm trying to escape. I yelled back when I heard thunder, but I'm down to one last breath; and will it let me say, let me say...Hold me now; I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking maybe six feet ain't so far down. I'm looking down now that it's over, reflecting on all of my mistakes. I thought I found the road to somewhere, somewhere in His grace. I cried out heaven save me, but I'm down to one last breath; and will it let me say, let me say..."

Aria rubbed her eyes gently, yawning. "I'm still here...I'm still here..." she mumbled, propping her chin up on her free hand and staring sleepily at Luke's face. "I wish you'd twitch...or moan...just something to show that you're here with us...that you're...waking up..." she murmured, her eyelids fluttered. She yawned again before she resumed singing the song.

"...Hold me now; I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking maybe six feet ain't so far down. Sad eyes follow me, but I still believe there's something left for me. So please come stay with me; 'cause I still believe there's something left for you and me, for you and me, for you and me...Hold me now; I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking...Hold me now; I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking maybe six feet ain't so far down. Please come now I think I'm falling, I'm holding on to all I think is safe."

Luke's fingers twitched.

She almost didn't believe it, but then they twitched again, and his grip tightened on her hand in an instinctive action. She sat up straighter, suddenly fully awake. "Luke?" she asked timidly, reaching up to brush some of the hair from his face. A soft moan escaped him, and his face leaned into the motion just slightly. She felt excitement bubble up inside of her. "Luke, come on, wake up...please..."

Luke took in a shaky breath, his face scrunching up in discomfort for a moment before at a painstakingly gradual rate, his eyelids fluttered open.


	4. Chapter 4: Awake

_**Woohooo! New chapter! I'm so excited, I love this story sooo much...I think it's my new favorite! I think it even trumps Blood Sweat and Tears right now haha**_

 _ **By the way, for those of you that read blood sweat and tears but don't follow my fanfiction page, I have writers block for Blood Sweat and Tears, It might be a while before you get your next chapter, just warning you.**_

 _ **On a side note, the fanfiction page is still AngelDesaray of Fanfiction and I suggest you go like it so you get these updates about delays and postings, and pictures for the chapters, songs, tribute videos, etc (Yes I'm going to start putting the songs and tribute videos from this fanfic on there, Probably in the notes when I get to it)**_

 _ **PLEASE REVIEW I LOVE REVIEWS! They make me smile :D**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

Luke didn't know how much time he spend floating in nothingness. What he did know was that occasionally light would pierce through that nothingness and he could feel himself rising towards the surface, just on the brink of consciousness. Fragments slipped towards him in those moments before he sank back into nothingness, where he would dream of bright white lights and the voice of an angel singing softly to him while he drifted...

 _What I love best, Lottie said, is when I'm asleep in my bed...and the Angel of Music sings songs in my head, the Angel of Music sings songs in my head..._

He didn't know when the feeling started to return. Suddenly, the aches and pains came back to him, and Luke felt heavier, much more solid. He slowly became aware of himself, of his steady breathing and throbbing, prone figure. He also became aware of a presence beside him, a presence that held his hand in a tight grip. He was parched, and his eyelids felt too heavy to lift until the angelic voice reached him again. Curious, he tried to get his grasp to tighten on the hand that was holding his hand. The voice stopped, and he tried again, this time successfully getting a grip on the hand that was in his.

"Luke?" the angelic voice asked the same time he was hit with a wave of soreness. Maybe he wanted to go back to the world of nothing and dreams of lights and musical angels...

Gentle fingers brushed against his forehead as another wave descended over him, and he couldn't help the low moan that slipped out of him. Yes, he definitely wanted to go back to the dreams where he didn't hurt all over...

"Luke, come on, wake up...please..." the angel asked him, and he sighed. He didn't think he could manage to go back to the peaceful world anyway, and he didn't want to disappoint the angel that had been singing to him while he slept. It took a great amount of effort on his part, but he managed to summon up the strength to lift his eyelids and set eyes on his constant companion.

He couldn't help but feel utterly surprised at who he saw.

 _Aria...?_

* * *

Darth Vader wasn't happy to be back on the base on Hapes; he wanted to leave this despicable place as soon as possible, but until Luke was in a stable enough condition to be moved, he couldn't leave. When Luke was stable, however, Vader planned on bringing him aboard the Executor where he would be under Vader's watchful eye at all times, and receive much better care than what the base could offer. Vader had sent the Executor's head doctor to take care of his son for a reason.

At the moment, he stormed through the base's halls towards the medical center, scowling behind his mask. Several days had passed, and from what Admiral Piett had told him, Luke had yet to wake up. That girl from the cell had also apparently not left his son's side, and her friends had visited Luke on occasion. Vader's scowl deepened at the thought; just what motivation did she have to attach herself to Luke the way she had? Was she under some delusion that it was her _right_ to be his constant companion?

 _My, my, are you jealous, Vader_ , a small voice asked him. Vader bristled at the thought. He was not _jealous_ , he was suspicious. He didn't trust the girl because something was obviously off about her, and Vader planned to figure out just what that was.

Vader turned into the hall where his son was housed, coming to a stop on the other side of the glass. There was that insufferable girl, at his son's side in obviously borrowed Imperial fatigues, brushing some of the hair from his face while she held his hand. What did she think she was doing...?

Vader's train of thought was brought to an abrupt stop when her muffled words reached him.

"Luke, come on, wake up...please..."

To Vader's surprise, Luke responded, shifting in place on the bed before his eyelids managed to crack open and the young man's eyes rested on the girl. Through the Force, Vader could sense a flicker of surprise rush through Luke before Luke opened his mouth to speak.

"Are you an angel?" Luke managed to croak out, and Vader went completely still.

Are you an angel?

 _Are you an angel?_

 _What?_

 _An angel; I heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the moons of Iego, I think..._

 _You're a funny little boy..._

On the other side of the glass, the scene continued on in front of him, different from what had happened in Watto's shop so many years ago, but yet still a painful reminder of a memory Vader wanted buried as deep as possible.

The girl blushed so much it was even visible to Vader through his mask. "No, no, I'm no angel, I'm just me," the girl said, looking both flattered and uncomfortable with the comment.

"Huh..." Luke murmured. "I think you are. A musical angel...an Angel of Music."

The girl's blush somehow deepened. "Of all the choice of words," she said with a slight chuckle. "I think it's the drugs talking."

"Mm, if it was the drugs talking I wouldn't feel so sore right now."

"Do you need more painkillers? I can call for the doctor, he'll want to know you're awake," the girl said, standing up. Luke grasped her in a surprisingly strong grip.

"No, stay, please..." he murmured, eyelids drooping slightly. His eyes flickered along the room, and Vader moved out of sight of the glass window. Maybe if he lingered long enough, he would be able to figure something out about this girl. "Where am I?"

"The medical center. You've been out for several days; you had a blood transfusion, and you were submerged in a bacta tank for quite some time..."

Luke hesitated. "Rebel med center?" he asked.

"No...we're still in the base," the girl said softly.

Luke was quiet for several long moments. "You saved my life."

The girl was quick to refute; wise of her. Vader wouldn't have been so pleased with her if she'd tried to take the credit for herself. "No, your father did—"

A wave of shock and anger flew through Vader. How did she know? How did this mere girl know? Had Luke told her? That had to be the only way! There was no ill will that Vader could sense from the girl, so he knew it hadn't been anyone under the Emperor's control. _How?_

"—he carried you all the way here and made sure you got all the care that you needed," the girl continued.

"Where is he?" Luke asked suddenly, alarm filling his voice. The young man tried to sit up, but the girl pushed him back down.

"Take it easy, he left the planet to go...find...Xizor. Admiral Piett said he would be back today though," the girl told him. Luke reluctantly eased back onto the bed, his adrenaline rush leaving him just as quickly as it had come. "You can't strain yourself, you're lucky to be alive as it is."

"Thanks to you," Luke said softly.

"Luke, I didn't do any—"

"Aria," Luke said, and Vader felt a twinge of satisfaction at finally being able to put a name to the girl. "If you hadn't convinced me to reach out to my father, I'm sure I wouldn't be here right now; it may not be all the credit, but you are partially who I need to thank for being alive right now."

The girl was silent for several long, _long_ moments, and Luke broke the silence again. "Where'd they get the blood for the transfusion? I know I'm not an easy match..."

"From me and two of my friends," Aria said quietly.

It seemed Luke had just remembered them. "What happened to them? Are they still in the cell?"

"No, we were all given a room to stay in; I haven't been there yet, but that's where they are now."

"And Victor and Ben—"

"Are fine, they're all fine," she assured him.

"They don't think you're all Rebels too, do they? I...I'd hate to get you all tangled in this mess needlessly," Luke mumbled. Well, it seemed the girl and her friends really weren't Rebels; at least they had that going for them.

"No, I don't think so," Aria told him. Vader was starting to get restless waiting for more information to slip past their defenses—there was too much idle chit chat for his liking. "Besides, I think we're possibly over our heads in this already."

Vader had to turn his attention from the conversation at that point, because he could sense one of the doctors approaching him. The man froze at seeing the Sith Lord lurking just outside Luke's room, obviously not expecting to run into him.

"M-m-my Lord! Y-you're back," the man stuttered, and Vader growled low in his throat. If Luke hadn't sensed him by now, surely he'd sensed this man's fear and knew Vader was there now.

"Yes, I am. Skywalker is awake, and I want him moved onboard the _Executor_ immediately," Vader growled.

"H-he is?" the doctor asked, confused. "I-I'll have to make sure he's well enough to be transported first—"

"He is, and it will be done promptly, understood?" Vader snarled, jabbing a finger at the man and causing him to tremble like there was an earthquake rocking the base.

"Y-y-yes m-my Lord!" the doctor squeaked. Without another word, Vader spun on his heel and entered Luke's room.

The young man paled and weakly sat up on Vader's entry, and the girl—Aria—snapped to her feet beside Luke's bed but out of Vader's way. Vader spared her a glance but nothing more as he came to a rest at the foot of Luke's bed, letting the tense silence stretch a few breathing cycles before he finally spoke.

"I see you're awake," he rumbled, eyeing Luke closely. Luke seemed to be regaining his bearings, but did not have enough strength to hold much of a defiant posture. "You're being moved onto my personal flagship, now that you've recovered enough to be moved."

A flash of pure panic flickered across his face. "What?" he exclaimed.

"If you thought I was just going to let you go back to your Rebellion once you recovered, than you are more foolish than I thought," Vader said in amusement. "You will be accompanying me from here on out, and will be under the care of the medics on my ship, under my close supervision."

"And then what? You'll take me to the Emperor?" Luke accused. A wave of fatigue fell over the boy, and he sank back into the bed.

"Now is not the time for this," Vader said, his voice low. "Now, you need your rest."

Aria had placed a restraining yet comforting hand on Luke's shoulder, and Vader's attention was drawn to her yet again. "You, come with me," he growled. The panic in Luke's eyes seemed to grow, and Vader knew exactly why the boy was fearful. He didn't bother to reassure him though; whether this girl would be all right or not depended solely on how this conversation turned out. Based on his other short conversations with the girl, she was bound to push him, but not push him too far...if she was lucky.

To her credit, the girl didn't flinch. She straightened up and followed Vader after the door, though Vader didn't miss that she gave his son's hand a quick and reassuring squeeze before she did so. Once out in the hall, Vader spun the girl around so she would face him fully.

"You're going to answer everything I ask instantly and honestly, is that understood?" Vader snapped, jabbing a finger at her chest. The girl nodded mutely, her expression suggesting she had been waiting for this particular confrontation. "Where are you and your friends from?"

"Tatooine, Naboo, and Stewjon," she said immediately. Vader could tell there was something...off about her answer, but he couldn't place what. He did, however, know that her answer was still truthful. Frustrated, Vader pushed a little further.

"And what, exactly, are you and your friends?" he challenged. It took the girl a moment to gather her answer, but she responded promptly enough that it didn't push Vader to punish her for hesitating.

"We're all human with two bodyguards, a once-politician, and then just me. I'm the youngest of us all," she said.

"What are the other's names?" he asked menacingly, stepping closer. A light of panic actually flickered across the girl's face, and the thought finally occurred to Vader that perhaps she was well aware of the fact that he could detect the truth of her words.

"They go by Ben, Victor, and..." Aria hesitated, obviously unsure of how to address the other companion. "Phoenix, back home."

Again, Vader sensed something off about her answer, like it was the truth for what she was saying. "Your true alliance?" Vader snarled.

Aria hesitated again. "I align myself with people rather than flags," she said with more conviction than Vader had anticipated.

"And just who, exactly, are you aligned to?" he asked, taking another threatening step closer.

She automatically answered, which was a good sign. "My three friends and Luke would be the only ones right now."

Vader grabbed the front of her shirt, but she didn't flinch this time. She was shaking, yes, but she surprisingly met his gaze straight on. "You don't fool me girl; I know that you're hiding something, and I intend to find out just what that is. That's why you'll be coming with us on the cruiser."

To his surprise, she didn't seem that upset; in fact, she seemed a little relieved. Sickening. "Yes Lord Vader."

"I'll be sure to keep not only Luke, but you and your friends as well under close supervision. Whatever it is you are hiding, I will find out, and punishment for it shall be dealt accordingly," Vader snarled. He released her, stepping back towards the hallway. "I expect you and your friends to be ready the same time that Luke is."

With that, he stalked away, drawing up plans to put the girl in a situation that would allow him to finally get the information he needed.

* * *

Aria wilted against the wall once Vader had disappeared out of sight, breathing heavily while her mind raced. She was an object of special interest to Darth Vader, and had possibly drawn his attention to the other three as well—great. This was going just splendidly.

At least, if they were on the _Executor_ , they would still be around Luke. That would allow the escape attempt to include him as well, and then they could all, collectively, return to the safety of the Rebel Alliance. Well...as much safety as being with the Rebels allowed. Aria was all for redeeming Vader, but right now was not the time to be conducting such an idea. Now was the time to get out as soon as possible and get to somewhere she could sit down with everyone and everything could be explained.

Realizing Luke was probably sick with worry and possibly thought Vader might have killed her, Aria turned and went back into Luke's room, rubbing her eyes tiredly. At least she'd stopped shaking by now.

She heard Luke sigh in relief, and looked up to see him relaxing into the hospital bed. "I was getting worried he might have killed you," Luke said tiredly. Aria went over to him, resuming her seat by his side.

"I was getting worried he would," Aria replied shaking her head and burying her face in her hand, propping her elbow up on his hospital bed.

"What did he want you for?" Luke asked wearily.

Aria shook her head again. "Luke...I'm going to have to have a long talk with you and explain things...because Vader's catching on."

Luke sat up straighter. "Ben and Victor?" he guessed.

"Among other things," Aria said tiredly. "Vader's bringing us onto the _Executor_ too because he knows I'm hiding things. If he knew what..."

"He'll kill them," Luke finished softly. Aria laughed sourly.

"On the contrary, if he knew who they were, exactly...well, he'd kill one of them, turn the other immediately, and never let the third leave his sight," she said bitterly. Luke seemed startled.

"How do you know?" he asked curiously.

"I'll explain everything when they come back. Hopefully, they're still hiding their presences so Vader doesn't recognize them. I think they are, because he didn't say anything about it," she said, more to herself than to Luke. "You were right when you said I lied about their names; partially right. Victor is not his real name, Ben is just an alternate name, but Padme really is her name...I told Vader her name was Phoenix though, because...well...he wouldn't react well simply to her name."

"Who _are_ they?" Luke asked incredulously.

"Two Jedi of the Republic—a Master and a Padawan—and an ex-Queen of Naboo and Republic Senator," Aria told him truthfully and quietly.

"And you are?" he asked. Aria shrugged.

"Just a normal girl, who knows way more than she should," Aria said simply. Luke shook his head weakly.

"That brings me back to my original round of questions, back in the cell. You four appeared out of nowhere, literally, and you knew who my father was when I haven't told a single soul. How?" Luke asked. His blue eyed gaze was more intense than any picture or movie could ever hope to capture, and Aria found herself fixed in place by his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure that will be explained when they arrive," she said softly.

"But that could be too late; we could already be separated on the Executor by the time they find out I'm awake."

"They probably already know. Ana—Victor's been keeping a close watch on you through the Force," Aria said, tripping over Anakin's real name for a moment. Luke raised his eyebrows.

"Ana, what?" he pressed, curiously.

"I want them to tell you their names themselves...but I'm starting to think you should be better rested before I have them tell you," Aria said hesitantly. Luke shook his head adamantly.

"No, now is the time to tell me, before we're all moved," he said firmly.

"I should tell you now Luke, this is going to put a heavy burden on your shoulders to keep their identities secret from your father. It's hard enough for me to lie to him without lying; but now we'll have to coordinate our lies," she said seriously.

"Lie, without lying?" Luke asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Stating things from a certain point of view. Like naming the planets the other three come from and letting him imply I'm from one of those planets too when I'm not from any of the three. Saying that _back home_ —for me home—they're known as Victor, Ben, and Phoenix. Making sure I word things so that it's the truth...from a certain point of view. I never thought I'd be using Obi-Wan's strategy like this."

"You know Obi-Wan!" Luke exclaimed, sitting up so fast he obviously hurt himself and fell back onto the bed with a cry.

Aria was at his side in an instant, a gentle hand on his chest while she looked at him in pure concern. "Easy Luke, please, you'll need all your strength...yes I know Obi-Wan," she said gently, her eyes still flickering over his face in concern. "But I know him in a much different way than you know him."

"You're just confusing me more by the minute," Luke said, but he cut off when he saw the three people who were approaching the door of his room. "They're here; does that mean I finally get some answers?"

Aria hesitated. "Yes...but you should know first," she said in a rush, obviously trying to get out what she had to say before they arrived. "They do not know that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, they don't know that you are the son of Anakin Skywalker, and I'm keeping it that way for a reason. You'll understand in a moment."

Before Luke could possibly answer, the door opened and the prequel trio walked through the door, with Padme in the lead. A look of utmost relief fluttered across her face and she rushed to Luke's bedside.

"Oh, you're okay, you had us all so worried," Padme said, taking up a spot beside Aria. Obi-Wan and Anakin approached the other side of Luke's bed, with Obi-Wan closer to the foot of the bed and Anakin close to the head of the bed.

"You were out for quite some time," Anakin quipped. "You had Aria a nervous wreck."

"I just wish I was out of this bed and out of all these...contraptions," Luke muttered, shifting in bed.

"Rest easy, son," Obi-Wan said with a concerned look on his face. "You're fortunate to be all in one piece."

Luke blinked at Obi-Wan like he had seen a ghost. "I'm sorry...what?"

Then Aria remembered A New Hope, and a certain line a certain old Jedi had said to Luke right after he'd woken up after being attacked by Tusken Raiders. Before anything could develop from the moment, Aria cleared her throat, drawing all of their attention.

"Vader's taking us all aboard the _Executor_ , his personal flagship," Aria said immediately, looking each of them in the eyes in turn. "We're moving as soon as Luke's well enough to be moved, which will be immediately if Vader has his way, which is most likely."

"Then we have to break out now, while we've got a chance," Anakin said sharply, blue eyes flashing. Aria held up a hand.

"I actually think it will be easier to escape the _Executor_ on a Lambda shuttle than it will be to escape this base. I'm guessing whatever ship Luke came was one-person ship?" she asked, glancing at Luke, who nodded. "Did you have R2 with you?"

"No, not this time," Luke said softly. "He's back at the base; this was supposed to be an easy in and out mission, so I figured I would need him. How did you know about R2?"

"I'll get there. Well it's a good thing he didn't come I guess, one less thing to worry about," Aria said. "Besides, if we wait to escape the _Executor_ , Luke will have regained enough strength to hold his own during the escape," Aria explained.

"I still don't like waiting," Anakin said. "A lot can happen while we're waiting for the right moment to make our escape."

"I know, but it's the best option for all of us right now," Aria said. She sighed, meeting Luke's eyes again. "Before you came in, I had a talk with Luke...we need to clear some of the air between all of us."

"What do you mean?" Padme asked wearily.

"We agreed I should know your real names, your full names...and she said she would explain how you ended up here and everything," Luke offered helpfully.

"One at a time now, though," Aria said. "Right now we're working on names, and I'll explain where we all just came from," Aria said pointedly.

"You were so intent on keeping our names secret just a few days ago," Anakin scowled.

"Vader's getting suspicious, and I figured that it would be best if we're all on the same page. Part of the reason he's taking us onboard the _Executor_ as well is because he wants to figure out what I'm hiding," Aria informed them.

"All the more reason to leave now," Anakin stressed.

"We can't," Aria snapped at him, gesturing towards Luke. "We're working with what we've got, and right now that means we're going to wait until he's well enough to move on his own. Patience!"

Anakin sighed in frustration. "All right, fine, I get it."

Aria scowled slightly. "We're getting off track. He deserves to know your real names...Padme, we'll start with you. Luckily I already gave him your real first name. he already knows your cover names too, by the way. All of them, so that when Vader asks he doesn't give the wrong name."

Padme sighed. "All right then...since you already gave him your real name...I'm Padme Naberrie Amidala, former Queen of Naboo and current Republic Senator."

"Current?" Luke asked, confused already. Aria put her hand back on his chest, putting a finger to her lips to signal him to wait. She raised an eyebrow at Obi-Wan, already tense and ready for the reacture that was sure to follow his reveal.

Obi-Wan held out a hand for Luke to shake, smiling in an open and friendly way. "Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight," he said, and Luke froze up immediately.

"O-O-Obi-Wan?" Luke stuttered, staring at Obi-Wan in utter shock. "But you're—"

"Not...for them, in their time," Aria said, cutting Luke off. Luke's head whipped over to Aria.

" _Their_ time?" Luke asked incredulously. Aria gave him a sheepish smile and shrugged.

"You wanted to know who we are...if you don't believe us, you can search your feelings; the Force will tell you we're telling the truth," Aria said gently. Luke sat back, closing his eyes and taking several deep, calming breaths. By the patient look on Obi-Wan's face, Luke was _thoroughly_ searching the Force to know if what they said was true. After several long moments of waiting, Luke opened his eyes, looking both awestruck and accepting at the same time.

"I believe you," he said simply, meeting Obi-Wan's eyes first. "Even if it seems utterly..."

"Impossible? Oh yeah, trust me, I know," Aria said with a small smile. "But, ah...I believe there's one last person that needs to formally introduce themselves," Aria said pointedly, cocking an eyebrow at Anakin. She wanted to see this one most of all.

Anakin uncrossed his arms from over his chest as Luke turned an identically blue gaze on him, curiosity filling both of their features for several long moments. Anakin offered a hand, which Luke shook a little hesitantly.

"Anakin...Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan."


	5. Chapter 5: Enlightenment

_**Holy Force this puppy is sooooooo long...but worth it. There's sooooo much in here...AND ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER!**_

 _ **I love my cliffhanger endings :D**_

 _ **By the way, don't hate me...but I'm going to be gone for a few days, without my laptop, so you won't be getting any Impossibly Real updates until Saturday or Sunday at the least. I'm going to try and get Blood Sweat and Tears up again before I leave, and there's no chance I'm going to get In the Thick of Battle updated before I leave, but yeah...brief hiatus, yaaaaaay *Sarcasm***_

 _ **Don't forget the Facebook page, pleeeaaaassssseeeeee like it! I love the page, and I do actually post and give updates and warnings like delayed chapters or vacations, etc etc.**_

 _ **PLEASE REVIEW!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

" _Anakin...Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan_."

Once Victor revealed his true name, Luke immediately froze up, the confession rushing around in his head louder than a starship taking off out of a hangar. He hardly felt his breath catch in his chest just before he went numb, his mind blanking as his conscious immediately rejected what he was being told.

" _Anakin_...Skywalker?" Luke whispered in question, just to make sure that he had heard correctly. When Victor nodded, Luke's mind just blanked.

 _That's...that's impossible..._

Yet the Force whispered the truth of it to him, even as Luke's brain utterly rejected what Victor—no, _Anakin_ —had said. He was vaguely aware that his mouth was agape, but he couldn't find the brain function to close it. A look of concern crossed Anakin's face as he gently pulled his hand out of Luke's suddenly tight grasp, and Luke decided he had to try and say _something_ , if he could just _think_...

Aria, much to Luke's gratitude, rescued him from embarrassment by speaking first.

"Well...I'm glad that's out in the open now," she said, giving Luke a look that suggested she had expected his reaction. Well, it was nice to know he was so predictable to her. He nodded mutely, not trusting himself to speak while she ignored Anakin's obvious look of questioning and curiosity. "I'll just...leave my part of this whole ordeal for after you've absorbed who they are because I know that's going to take some time..."

"Yeah...I agree..." Luke finally managed to say.

"Besides, we need to get ready if they're going to transfer us at any given moment, and my backpack _cannot_ be left behind no matter what," Aria said sharply, meeting Anakin's eyes. Anakin waved his hand dismissively.

"I'll get it, don't worry," he said with a small shrug. "Besides, even if they got ahold of it, they wouldn't be able to read any of it. The only reason _we_ could read all the stuff in there is because we took the time to learn your planet's written form of basic while the Force was translating it for us."

Luke glanced between the two as they started to bicker, feeling even more lost now. What were they talking about? Why wouldn't anyone be able to read what was in her backpack? What was even _in_ her backpack? Feeling rather useless at the moment, Luke sank further into the bed and tried to make his obvious staring at Anakin a little _less_ obvious as their conversation continued.

"I'll go get it now if it will make you feel better," Anakin was saying, looking a little annoyed.

"Yes, thank you, that would be wonderful," Aria said as Anakin stepped around her, shooting a few more curious glances Luke's way. "And _try_ not to run into any Sith along the way!" Aria called before he disappeared out the door.

Aria's words caused Luke to blink and finally come all the way back down to reality, staring in the direction that Anakin had just disappeared. "You said he didn't know—"

"None of them do; I'm sure you can figure out why," Aria said quickly, cutting him off before he could finish.

"No, I don't think I can, actually," Luke said in a tone that sounded a little annoyed to his surprise. "Just like I don't know why Ben didn't tell me about my father."

He had to force himself not to look at Obi-Wan while he spoke.

Aria winced just slightly. "It's a long...complicated story that's going to need more time to explain than we have right now," Aria said tenderly. "Though some of it has to do with the unpredictability of the reaction, I can say that," she muttered.

"What are you two talking about?" Padme asked curiously, glancing between the two. Obi-Wan was staring rather hard at Luke, studying him in a way that made Luke feel extremely uncomfortable for reasons he couldn't quite fathom.

"One of those little details I'm keeping secret to avoid burdening you with what I hope to avoid," Aria said truthfully. In the next moment, she had strategically changed the topic and diverted their attention elsewhere. Convenient. "Do you think that Vader will be in the same shuttle that takes us to his flagship, or is it safe to assume that he's already on the flagship?"

"With how obsessive he's been about Luke...I'd say he'll be with us while we're being transferred to the ship," Obi-Wan said abruptly, finally breaking away from his close scrutiny of Luke to make eye contact with Aria. The young girl sighed, looking so much older than she probably was in that moment.

"I wish I could just...hide your faces. He can't see you, or everything's going to blow up...Padme, you can't even _speak_ if he's around, and it's best that you do your best to stay hidden if that means hiding behind Anakin, as out of character for you as that would be," Aria said sternly. Luke frowned, examining the woman carefully. He'd figured that why she was so important was just because she was a Republic Senator, but now he was starting to think that she was much more important than that. Why would this woman need to be kept so secret from his father that she couldn't speak? Was she that recognizable to Vader, had she been that important of a person in his life? If so, just who had she been?

"Should I hide too?" Obi-Wan asked sarcastically. Had it been anyone else, Luke would have snickered; but his question brought the painful reminder of the Death Star right to the front of his eyes.

"Yes," Luke muttered. Aria spared Luke a glance before she turned her attention back to Obi-Wan.

"I don't _think_ so, I think you'll be fine for the most part...just don't speak," she added hastily.

"I don't know if that will be enough," Luke said pointedly.

"Obi-Wan's kind of in the middle for my worried list. Padme's the one I just want to hide in a suitcase or something to smuggle her under Vader's ever-watchful eye, Obi-Wan I'm not sure about, it's kind of a fifty-fifty and all depends I think. Anakin, I'm not concerned so much about Vader recognizing him as I'm worried about Vader noticing the obvious Padawan Braid. It's a dead giveaway that Anakin's a Jedi. Actually, just your attire is enough of a giveaway," Aria mused, looking for the world like she was resisting the urge to pace.

"We'll just have to run the risk," Obi-Wan said with a shrug, and Luke felt some panic rise in his chest at his words. If Vader recognized him, he would kill Obi-Wan where he stood without any hesitation.

"You're the one whose life will be on the line if he sees and recognizes you," Aria said doubtfully. Obi-Wan's eyes rose in surprise.

" _Only_ me?" Obi-Wan asked just as doubtfully.

"Well...if he realizes Anakin's a Jedi but doesn't realize who he is, then _Anakin's_ life will also be in danger, but other than that, yes, only you," Aria said.

Luke was beginning to feel like he'd been forgotten, watching them toss around probability and try to think of a way to slip under his father's radar. Trying to ignore how he was feeling slightly miffed, Luke tenderly poked around through the Force for his father's presence. He couldn't sense Anakin, which he guessed was a good thing, though he also couldn't sense Vader on the base. Well then...

"I don't think you need to worry about my father right now," Luke interrupted, smiling a little to himself.

Aria took one look at Luke's smug expression and huffed. "He's already on the _Executor_ , isn't he?"

"Apparently; I can't sense him anywhere on the base," Luke informed her. Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"I was sure that he would oversee it himself..." Obi-Wan muttered.

"He'll probably have Piett keep an eye on us, like the good Admiral has been doing this entire time," Aria mumbled. "Oh well, I won't complain; another moment we get away with having the three of you here."

The door to Luke's room opened, and said Admiral appeared beside a doctor, his gaze roaming over the small party before he spoke. "We're leaving...where's the other one? The one with the side braid?"

"He went to get my bag from our room; he should be back any moment now," Aria said promptly, standing straight and tall. With the way she acted when one of the Imperial Officers were in the room, Luke was starting to wonder if there was military somewhere in her family...possibly Imperial, maybe not, but military nonetheless. That or she practiced how to address officers when she wanted to avoid death in the mirror. "Actually, he's here now," Aria added, glancing out the glass window that took up a good part of one of the walls of Luke's hospital room. Sure enough, there was Anakin, a red backpack slung over his shoulder as he watched the group silently with a sharp eye.

Aria turned to the doctor. "So how is Luke going to be moved? He's too weak to even sit up for long, for one, and he's still got all this for another," Aria said, studying the devices that Luke was attached to.

"He doesn't need the drip now that he's awake enough to get the nutrients himself, and the cannula tube can go away as well. He just needs plenty of rest now; nothing strenuous even if you can move around and _think_ that it's within your capabilities," the doctor told Luke. Luke sighed, leaning back into his hospital bed.

"Yes sir," Luke mumbled, casting his eyes away towards Obi-Wan and Padme while the doctor moved to remove Luke's drip and cannula tube. Aria was beside him the next moment, helping him to sit up while the doctor glanced worriedly at the Admiral.

"Admiral Piett, I must object to having the patient walk to the shuttle as he just woke up and is very weak—" the doctor started, but Piett cut him off.

"I'm sure the _Hero_ of the _Rebellion_ can make a short trip to the shuttle," Piett said bitingly, signaling that the topic was not open to discussion. Aria scowled, but her back was to Piett so that the Admiral would not see her expression. Luke's expression darkened as well; he didn't know if he was up to walking across the base. Aria and the doctor were right, he could hardly sit up right now, how was he supposed to walk all the way to the shuttle? If his father knew what the Admiral was doing...

"I'll help," Aria said gently, helping Luke sit all the way up. Luke saw Anakin's expression shift to a look of surprise and anger on the other side of the glass, and Luke found himself hoping that he wasn't about to do something stupid. Obi-Wan came around Luke's other side to help him get up, with Aria pulling one of Luke's arms around her shoulders while Obi-Wan hooked Luke's other arm around his shoulders. It felt like his legs were made of gelatin as he tried to stand of his own free will as much as possible, his legs trembling like he was in an earthquake. He grit his teeth in determination, refusing to let Piett win this round no matter how difficult this was for Luke. At least he had Aria and Obi-Wan to help him, or else he was sure he wouldn't have even made it out of the bed.

Luke looked Piett right in the eye, hoping that it was indeed Piett's frustration that he was sensing and not anyone else's. "Shall we get going then?" Luke asked, cocking an eyebrow to appear more confident than he felt as Anakin entered the room. While Piett scowled, Aria shot Anakin a sharp look to keep him from saying anything, though it was obvious that he wanted to. Tentatively, Luke attempted to make his first few steps forward as Piett turned sharply on his heel and started on the way out of the facility. Luke nearly collapsed, and if it wasn't for Aria and Obi-Wan holding him up and his determination to power through this under all the eyes watching him, then he probably would have fallen flat on his face.

Anakin dropped back to their group, coming up besides Aria. "Do you want to switch me?" he asked, offering her the backpack. Aria shook her head.

"No, I've got him, don't worry," Aria assured him, instinctively tightening her grip on Luke's arm as they inched along. Luke focused himself on putting one foot in front of the other, ignoring the obvious stares and the continuously growing drained feeling seeping through him. The doctor stood helplessly behind the group, watching them leave with an obviously upset expression as he kept his gaze riveted on Luke. Beside Aria, Luke heard Anakin muttering something under his breath in Huttese that sounded suspiciously like insults aimed specifically at Piett.

Hopefully the Admiral didn't hear. Luke had heard somewhere that Piett understood Huttese, and if Anakin was going to fly under the radar of all these Imperials he needed to avoid any and all attention, good or bad.

Anakin...

Luke let his gaze slide over to the young man standing on the other side of Aria, studying him hungrily with a burning need to know what his father had looked like before he became Darth Vader. It looked like Luke had inherited the same eyes, the same blonde hair, the same cleft chin even if it wasn't as prominent on Anakin at the moment, and the same firm jawline. Vaguely, Luke wondered how old Anakin was at the moment, taking in what Aria had called a Padawan Braid with a sense of curiosity. So his father wasn't a Jedi Knight yet...had the Clone Wars even begun for them? How long had Anakin been learning from Obi-Wan by now? Was Anakin just as curious about Luke as Luke was about him, even if Anakin wasn't aware of the familial relationship they shared? What happened to him that made him the way he was today; Vader?

Strangely, at that thought, Luke's gaze slid to Aria. She'd known about Luke's father, and had hinted that she knew what happened to them as well when they were back in the hospital room. Could she answer Luke's many questions? What was special about her? How had these three people from the past ended up in her care? Was her real name even Aria?

Luke stumbled and almost fell, nearly bringing Aria and Obi-Wan with him. Blushing profoundly, Luke forced his brain to focus on pushing his exhausted body to his destination. He'd already lasted long enough to get out of the medical wing, though he didn't know where he was right now. Maybe if he would have been conscious when he was carried to the medical facility, he would actually know.

That train of thought led him to something he still had not processed. His father had come for him; against all odds, Vader had actually answered Luke's call for help. Vader had dropped whatever he'd been doing elsewhere instantly, all for Luke. Darth Vader had saved his life, _carrying_ Luke all the way from the detention center to the medical facility, through who knew how many halls and levels.

Now he was willingly getting on a shuttle that would take them onto the _Executor_ , where he would constantly be under his father's gaze. A pang of fear went through him again at the thought, and his mind took a sudden fearful turn. What was going to happen to him once he was rested enough? Would Vader try to convince him to join the dark side again before he resulted to more...forceful methods? What horrors awaited him on this Star Destroyer?

Then again...what answers was he going to find?

Luke's deep soul searching came to an end as the decently sized party finally arrived in the hangar, where a Lambda-class Imperial Shuttle sat waiting for them, warmed up and ready to take flight. Luke felt Aria lean over a little to Anakin, barely catching the words she whispered to Anakin even with how close to her Luke was.

"That's the type of ship we'll be hijacking at a later date. I think it'll be the only one that'll meet our needs."

"Duly noted," Anakin whispered back, his lips barely moving to indicate the murmured words.

They waited for Piett and the escorting Stormtroopers to enter the shuttle before Aria and Obi-Wan helped Luke enter the shuttle, flanked by Anakin and led by Padme. As soon as the passenger seats along the side of the shuttle were visible, Luke's eyes narrowed on an open seat, riveted on the sight of oncoming—yet brief—relief. Padme seemed to notice Luke's current focus, and moved out of the way to allow him a straight path to the nearest seat. Luke stepped forward eagerly with his shaky, gelatin legs, helped along by Aria and Obi-Wan until he was finally able to sink gratefully into the chair, sighing unashamedly as he sagged against the seat and Aria and Anakin took seats on either side of him. Obi-Wan and Padme sat on the other side of Anakin, who handed Aria's backpack to her once they had sat down.

"Well...this is it..." Luke muttered before he turned to look at Aria. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said quietly.

"I do too," she said with a sigh.

"Great confidence builder," Anakin said before Luke could say it himself.

"Just keeping honest," Aria replied with a slight smile that quickly slipped away as she stared intently at the floor. Luke and Anakin both took in the rigid form of her shoulders and back and the white-knuckled grip she'd clasped her hands together in.

"First time flying?" Luke asked, taking a shot in the dark. Aria shook her head.

"It's not the first time I've flown, I've just never been a big fan of the take-offs...and I've never been in space," she told him, adding the last part in a very quiet voice like she was trying to keep any of the Imperials from hearing.

"It's not that bad. Cold, especially for first timers, but not bad. It's rather exciting I think. I'm usually most at home up in the stars," Luke told her, leaning his head back and closing his eyes as the ship started to lift off of the ground and take to the sky.

"Flying usually helps clear my head too," Anakin quipped from his seat beside Luke. Luke felt an excited trill go through him at Anakin's words; there was another thing that the two of them shared. He wondered what else was in there.

"Yes, he's a rather exceptional pilot himself; he won the Boonta Eve when he was nine," Aria told Luke, a twinkle in her eyes. Luke got the vague sense that she knew how important it was for him to know more about his father, and that something like that would be invaluable to Luke.

"Really?" Luke asked excitedly, turning his head to meet Anakin's eyes. Anakin's eyes were alight with the current topic, though he shrugged as if it wasn't that big of a deal.

"It was nothing really," he said modestly. "Though it is one of my best memories."

"I've flown through Beggar's Canyon a few times myself; did you ever thread the Stone Needle?" Luke asked, already getting deeply engaged in the conversation.

Anakin shook his head. "Whenever I was in Beggar's Canyon I was racing and too focused on trying to win the race to try, but I bet if I _did_ try I could. When you're a nine-year-old podracer and younger, you're more concerned about not becoming a permanent grease stain on the wall than Threading the Needle."

Luke snickered. "You have a good point. As far as I'm aware, me and...my friend Biggs were the only two that managed to thread the needle."

His jovial mood died a little at the memory of his deceased friend, but he did his best to hide the small pang that came from the reminder. He kept his smile in place, though he was sure that suddenly it didn't reach his eyes. Anakin noticed, that much was for sure, but he didn't say anything about it.

"I'll take that challenge. Maybe if I ever go back to the dustball I'll try it," Anakin said instead. Luke relaxed a little more as the conversation trailed away from the painful subject, sighing.

"Yeah...I don't necessarily want to go back if I have to, but I've already had to go back a few times. I'll probably continue to find myself going back," Luke said, staring off into the distance. He felt the shuttle start to slow, and looked around, a sudden pit of dread growing in his stomach. "We're here," he said grimly, already gathering himself to get ready to walk again. He could sense his father somewhere on the ship, but not in the hangar where the shuttle was currently making its landing. Anakin was standing before the shuttle even started to touch down, looking right at home on the ship while Aria stayed firmly in her seat until the shuttle had touched down and started to power down. This time, it was Aria and Anakin that supported Luke, though Aria had the additional weight of the backpack this time, so Anakin took most of Luke's weight onto himself. Once more, they waited for Piett and the others to take the lead before they followed, as none of them knew where they were supposed to be going. As soon as they were off the shuttle, though, Piett spoke.

"I'll be returning to the bridge," he told four Stormtroopers. "You will escort them to their rooms, and do _not_ disturb Lord Vader. You will report to me once they are in their rooms; he said he wished to be left alone to meditate," Piett said firmly.

"Yes sir, said the Stormtrooper at the front of the group, snapping into a salute before the four surrounded the party of five. Apparently Piett believed four to be enough since one of their group was so weak he had to be held up by two others; he was probably right, though Luke didn't know the extent of Padme's abilities. He still had yet to figure out what else made her so important other than the fact she was a Republic Queen and Senator; he could sense there was something else...he just didn't know what that something else was. Perhaps Aria could give him an answer...

The grouped walked along in relative silence, with Luke feeling like a caged, injured animal the entire time as they were led through hall after hall of Imperial gray. He could sense his father's presence getting stronger and wondered if perhaps they were going to be right by his father's quarters. Probably. The thought caused him to shiver, drawing a questioning look from Anakin. He was probably too busy masking his presence to sense Vader.

By the time Vader's presence was overwhelmingly close, Luke was positive that Vader was going to keep them all as close as possible; most likely right across from him. Sure enough, the Stormtroopers came to a halt outside a door in that very hall. One of them entered a code, taking care to hide it from the group before the door slid open.

"This will be Skywalker's room," the Stormtrooper rumbled, gesturing inside. "And one other's as well; the other room—the one right next door—will only fit three."

"I'll stay," Aria said before anyone else could. Anakin opened his mouth to protest, but Aria shot him a sharp look that ended the argument before it even started. Anakin scowled.

"You still owe us answers," he muttered, and Aria sighed.

"I know, and I will get to that when I can," she said sincerely as the two of them helped Luke into the room. Two Stormtroopers stood outside the door waiting for Anakin while the other two escorted Padme and Obi-Wan into the room next to what was going to be Luke and Aria's.

Luke looked around, taking in his prison for the next who knew how long. It was black and gray, as expected, with a viewport of the stars outside taking up the wall on his right. There were two large black beds across from each other, a refresher in one of the corners, a closet across from the refresher, a two-person dark gray couch, and a small light gray table. It was nice enough, though Luke did note that it was bare of anything that might provide access to the outside world. No datapad, no communications system, nothing.

Aria and Anakin helped Luke to the bed on the side with the refresher, and Luke sank into the comfortable mattress with a content sigh, relieved to finally be able to lie down like he was supposed to be doing. Anakin gave Aria a sharp look.

"Are you sure you want to stay in here? You don't want Obi-Wan or me in here?" Anakin asked her in a low tone of voice. Aria cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes I'm sure. I still owe Luke some explanations so he can catch up, and that's going to take some time."

"I'm right here you know," Luke said in a slightly amused, slightly grouchy tone of voice. He was starting to get tired of them talking about him like he wasn't sitting right by them.

"I know," Aria assured him.

Anakin jabbed a finger at Aria's chest. "We need to start having answers. Keeping us in the dark while we were on Earth was okay, but now things are different. You can't keep us in the dark now; we need to know some of the things that you're hiding from us."

Aria didn't even flinch. "I know. But let me deal with one thing at a time first. For example, catching Luke up and getting off of this ship."

"Hurry up," one of the Stormtroopers said grouchily. They obviously couldn't hear what was being said, but were getting impatient waiting on Anakin.

"I mean it," Anakin said forcefully as he took a step back towards the door.

"I know. You'll get your answers Anakin, all of you will; in time," Aria replied. Anakin's expression soured a little before he finally turned away and allowed himself to be escorted out of the room. The door slide shut behind him, and Luke found himself alone with Aria. For a moment, awkward silence filled the space between them before she spoke first.

"I'm sure you have plenty of questions," she said, moving away from the bed to plop her backpack down on the floor by the couch. Luke studied her every move, trying to hide his confusion.

"Earth?" he asked simply. Anakin had thrown him off with the statement; he'd said it like it was a place, but Luke had never heard of an Earth.

"My home planet," Aria explained, coming back to his beside and sitting down on his right.

"I've never heard of it," Luke confessed. Then again, there were quite a few planets he'd never heard of. "Where is it? Maybe if you give me a planet it's close to I might get a better idea."

Aria smiled in a way that made Luke feel as if he was missing something. "See, that's the catch about me. I'm sure you've wondered what my big secret it."

Luke snorted softly; all of them did seem to have a big secret of their own to guard. "Yeah, just a little," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

Aria shook her head. "It's going to sound crazy, but...I'm not from this galaxy."

For a minute, Luke didn't say anything. Then he started laughing. "That's a good one," he said with a smile. Aria smiled as well, but she shook her head again.

"It wasn't a joke; I'm being serious," she told him gently. "I'm not from your galaxy; I'm from another one entirely, a _long_ ways away from here."

Luke fixed her with a disbelieving stare, feeling that ever-growing familiar numbness and blank moment coming on. "But...but that's—"

"You just met your newly twenty-year-old father and a thirty-five-year-old Obi-Wan Kenobi, and you're going to tell me that me being from another galaxy is impossible?" Aria challenged with a raised eyebrow.

"Twenty?" Luke asked incredulously. "He's _younger_ than me right now?"

Aria's lips twitched towards a smile. "Yeah, I find that a little amusing myself. We're getting off topic though; we need to clear the air about me before we go any further on them."

Luke shook his head. "How is this all possible?"

"The Force," Aria said with a shrug. "It brought those three to my galaxy, and now it's brought all four of us to your time in the galaxy the four of you belong to."

"That still doesn't explain how you know so much about me—about them too, I'm guessing," Luke said, shifting uncomfortably. It made him uneasy to know that the girl knew so much about him and he hardly knew anything about her. Aria grimaced.

"Yes, see...this is the part that was hard for them to grasp too. Another galaxy, they could accept...it took some time for them to believe me when I told them that your lives are a holofilm series in my galaxy...except we don't have holo technology, which would be a difference, and we call them movies."

Luke stared at her long and hard. Instead of asking the same stupid question he'd asked three or four times since he'd woken up, he stretched out to the Force, hoping to find that all of this was just some elaborate gag and she was pulling his leg. Instead, he found the Force humming with the truth of her words, every single part of it. Still, his brain rejected what she was telling him.

"I'm sorry I just...I find this all hard to process," Luke muttered.

"It was hard for those three to process too," Aria told him gently, standing up and going over to her backpack. She unzipped the largest pocket, pulling out a rectangular, black device she carried over to him. "I do have some proof though, in case you need it. The others I just told them something no one but themselves would know, or something I couldn't possibly know if I was lying. _You_ I feel safe pulling up a clip...from one of the movies..." she muttered, opening the device and starting it up. Luke stared as the thing powered up. Well...at least now he could accept she was from a different galaxy. He watched her navigate through the alien device, pulling up files marked Video Clips, and scrolling down to the bottom of its contents and clicking on an individual file titled _The Force Is With You_.

The screen went pink with a little sideways arrow in a box in the middle while it loaded, and suddenly a disconcertingly familiar scene filled the screen in front of him. There was the carbonite freezing chamber on Bespin, and before Luke could fully take in the figure that stood in the center an equally familiar voice echoed from the device in words he still had not forgotten and still sent a chill down his spine.

" _ **The Force is with you young Skywalker,"**_ Darth Vader said, his voice spot on down to the eerie mechanical breathing. Luke's own face suddenly filled the screen, and his mind utterly blanked as the picture shifted from Luke onto Vader's shadowy form. _**"But you are not a Jedi yet,"**_ Vader hissed. The Luke on the screen started forward, but the clip ended there before anything else happened.

Luke stared openly at Aria as if she had suddenly grown five more heads. The weight of her words had yet to sink in, but at the same time...

"I believe you," he said, his voice just shaking slightly at the end. Aria snapped the device shut, setting it at the foot of the bed with a sigh.

"I know what has happened—and what was supposed to happen—to each one of you because of this series; it's called Star Wars in my galaxy," she started to explain, holding his stunned gaze confidently. "However, I'm no longer sure about your future, because I believed we changed it significantly, starting the moment that we arrived. You were _never_ supposed to be captured on this mission; you would have been in and out without a hitch had we not shown up."

Something in her tone of voice stirred Luke out of his stunned state; it sounded like she was blaming herself for his capture. "It's not your fault," he said firmly. "You didn't know you were going to end up here, and you couldn't do anything to control the outcome. Besides, you saved my life..." he added softly.

Aria looked away with a shrug. "I didn't do much," Aria mumbled.

Luke observed her for a moment, mulling over a single thought in his mind before he risked asking. "How did you know that my Father would come?"

Luke watched her reaction carefully. A strange look passed over her face—an expression he couldn't quite place—and she stared intently down at the bed for several long moments, looking like she was struggling for words in those few moments. Luke stayed silent, giving her time to gather her thoughts so she could answer him honestly and accurately.

"There are two people that I know the most about in this galaxy," Aria finally said. "Anakin and you. I know your stories like the back of my hand. With Anakin...family has always been the most important thing to him, even in his darkest moments. He'd do _anything_ for the people he cares about, anything at all. When Vader found out about you, it re-awoke that part of him. He may do many horrible things, but he would never stand by and let you die. You're the only family he has left, that means more than you'd think, and he'll do anything to protect you."

Luke's lips thinned a little, his mind immediately flashing back to Bespin, which hadn't been that long ago, as he instinctively clenched his right hand.

 _Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as Father and Son!_

"Mind you, his perception of what's right is still rather warped right now..." Aria continued in a low mumble. "He lost sight of where the line between right and wrong was a long time ago. He truly believes that what he's doing is best for the galaxy, but he _does not_ agree with the Emperor. In fact, he loathes that twisted old prune. He just is physically unable to shake himself free from the Emperor. He was going to get rid of Palpatine long ago as soon as your mother's safety was ensured, but before that could happen...well...he ended up in that suit."

Aria still wasn't looking Luke in the eye, staring hard at the bed. He could sense what she was telling him was true, so he knew she wasn't lying, but at the same time, this was all strange for him, and he was struggling to process what she was telling him.

"If he hates the Emperor so much, why did he join him in the first place?" Luke asked in a mixture of desperation and anger. He was surprised at his tone, but at the same time there was so many rising emotions, so much information at once...

Aria finally looked up to meet Luke's eyes, and Luke was shocked by how much deep emotion was in her eyes. "He was trying to save Padme. He had a premonition, like you did of Leia, Han, and Chewbacca on Bespin, of Padme dying in childbirth. He didn't even know if the baby would live. He just knew that the last time he had a premonition of someone dying, it happened, and he couldn't let it happen again. Not Padme, and not his unborn child, the only family he had left and the two most important beings in his life. He looked everywhere for a way to stop his dream from happening; he went to Yoda, he poked around the archives in the Jedi Temple, he looked _everywhere_ , and he couldn't find the assurance that he needed that Padme would be okay, he couldn't find a way for him to save her if something did go wrong like in his dream, and the dreams just kept coming and kept growing in frequency. Enter Palpatine, wrinkly old serpent...offered him a way to save Padme on a silver platter. Anakin kept looking elsewhere, but Palpatine's Sith legend wouldn't leave him, and it kept turning around in his head for days, maybe weeks, until one day he believed it was his only option. Anakin joined Palpatine solely to learn the power he'd been told to save Padme, but he lost himself in the process. He still wanted to save her, he still wanted to learn that power, and he planned on overthrowing Palpatine the moment Padme and their unborn child was safe...but he dived too deep, and nothing went the way he thought it would. He ended up in that suit the same day you were born, and Palpatine told him that _he_ was the one who killed her, and that it was _his_ fault she was dead...and of course he believed you died with her. He's lived with the guilt from that lie for two decades, and I don't know if he even knows now that Padme's death wasn't his fault..." Aria sighed, burying her face in her hands. "His story is one horrible tragedy with lies, deception, and miscommunications galore. There are so many things that could have been done differently, some of them so simple, that could have changed _everything_..."

Luke sat in stunned silence for several long minutes, and Aria thankfully did not press him. When he finally found his voice, it was a bare whisper. "Padme...that woman...the Senator..."

Aria looked back up and gave him a small half-smile. "Yes, Padme is your mother. Of course, Anakin is the only one openly expressing his feelings and making moves right now; they were just reunited after ten years apart."

"Could you tell me more about them? Distract me from...everything else," Luke asked softly.

"I can do better," Aria said, patting his knee gently. "When we get out of here and we're safely behind Rebellion lines, I'll show you. For now, I can tell you some things, like the fact they met when Anakin was nine and Padme was fourteen. Anakin raced in the Boonta Eve to win the credits Padme and Obi-Wan—who was a Padawan at the time, apprenticed to a Qui-Gon Jinn—needed to get the part they needed to repair their ship. Anakin accompanied them back to Coruscant—Imperial Center—to see if the Jedi Council would allow him to train as a Jedi, and accompanied them further back to Naboo where he was in the Battle of Naboo. The celebration after the victory was the last time they saw each other until just recently."

Luke stared at the ceiling in silent wonder, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he had met his former teacher, his mother who he had no memory of, and his father before he was claimed by darkness. He still had to wrap his mind around the fact that his father had fallen to the dark side trying to save his mother and himself; it was a tragic thought that caused an ache in his heart.

"This is all so surreal..." Luke murmured.

"I know," Aria told him. "I didn't think any of this was real until they showed up in my house in the middle of the night, and now I know everything that happens to everyone...and I decided to take it upon myself to change some things."

Luke would have pushed himself up if he had the strength to do so. "You're going to...keep him from falling, aren't you?"

"I'm going to try to," Aria said quietly. "That's why I haven't told them; I want to change that from happening without burdening them with the knowledge of what could happen. Anakin wouldn't handle learning what happened to him in the future well; it would destroy him if he discovered the truth of what happened."

Luke shook his head, trying to think of what his life would be like if his father hadn't fallen to the dark side. "This is all so surreal..."

Aria snickered softly. "Yes, it is, isn't it? Let's leave the rest for when we're off this ship though; I feel jumpy talking about all of this when your father is right across the hall from us."

Luke blinked. He'd completely forgotten about that. Hastily, he tried to contain his emotions, as impossible of a task that seemed, taking deep calming breaths like Yoda had taught him to clear his mind. He needed to calm down, he needed to get ahold of himself...

Aria rubbed his knee gently. "You should really get some rest," she told him gently. "Is there anything that you need?"

Luke licked his lips, reminded of how parched he had been since he woke up. "Something to drink would be nice, actually."

Aria smiled a little like she saw something funny in that, getting up to go over to that handy backpack of hers again. "I actually packed a full water bottle in case when we came to this galaxy we ended up on Tatooine. It wouldn't have surprised me," she said with a chuckle, pulling out the black metal bottle and unscrewing the top before she handed it to him. "Our combined luck is absolutely horrible; you Skywalkers have a knack for getting into trouble no matter where you go and what's going on."

Luke couldn't help but smile. "It's a talent," he said with a grin, eagerly taking a cold drink from the cool container. The liquid soothed his parched throat, and he had to force himself not to drink the entire bottle, holding the bottle a little ways away to read what was on it. He saw what was obviously two lightsabers crossed over each other, but he did not recognize the characters that were inscribed around the crossed lightsabers. Aria seemed to notice his momentary confusion, and moved to explain.

"In my galaxy we speak the same Galactic Basic as you do here, but we call it English, and it's obviously written much differently. That's why I'm not worried about anyone reading the information I have in my backpack because I know no one knows the written form of English out here," she said easily.

"So what does this say?" Luke asked, reluctantly handing the water bottle back. Aria refused the bottle, pressing it back into his hand.

"You can have it all, there's a refresher right I can fill it in," she said with a wave of her hand. While Luke eagerly downed the remaining water, Aria recited what was on the bottle from memory. "It's the Jedi code that the Jedi had when your father was a Jedi; there is no emotion, there is peace, there is no ignorance, there is knowledge, there is no passion, there is serenity, there is no chaos, there is harmony, there is no death, there is the Force. I personally prefer the old code; emotion, yet peace, ignorance, yet knowledge, passion, yet serenity, chaos, yet harmony, death, yet the Force. Or better yet the Gray Jedi code, but that's another matter entirely...don't tell Obi-Wan I mentioned the Gray Jedi by the way," Aria said hesitantly.

Luke looked at her curiously. "Gray Jedi?" He'd never heard the term before.

Aria blushed a little. "I'll get into that tomorrow, how about that? It's a touchy subject for Jedi, though Obi-Wan specifically since his master Qui-Gon Jinn was accused of being a Gray Jedi a few times. I don't think it was a bad thing. In fact, one of the reasons why the Jedi Order fell is because they became too arrogant and rigid, close-minded to anything other than their way specifically."

"You seem to know a lot about this sort of thing," Luke noted. Aria smiled a little.

"I loved the Star Wars series so much I went much deeper into the series than a normal person. I did my research; lots of it. Especially after I found out that this galaxy really did exist. That's when I got really serious about doing my research."

"You seem like a very passionate person," Luke quipped, noting how her eyes sparkled every time she started to talk about what she knew—when it wasn't a grim topic of course.

Aria blushed profoundly. "I guess, I mean, I never gave it much thought," she said, looking rather embarrassed.

"Well...you seem like a very passionate and driven individual to me," Luke told her with a small half smile. Aria stood up, taking the now empty water bottle back, still blushing.

"Thank you," she murmured, obviously not used to receiving compliments. "But you really should rest. We keep getting off topic," she said pointedly.

Luke sighed. "I see the distractions didn't work."

Aria laughed. "No, no they didn't. Now rest, please; we can talk more after. Right now your health is my main focus," Aria said in a scolding tone of voice.

Only a little reluctant, Luke sat back with a sigh, not even bothering to get under the covers. He was content simply with the bed. Aria, on the other hand, came over to help him, pulling the covers over him with the practiced care of a parent or sibling. Luke felt rather embarrassed himself being coddled and taken care of like this, but at the same time he knew he couldn't do much about it, and Aria didn't seem to mind. She seemed to want to help anyway, so he figured he might as well just remain compliant until he could handle himself again.

Aria left her hand resting on his chest for a few moments once he was settled, giving him a warm smile. "Go on and get some rest; you're going to need your strength back in the coming days. We all will."

She stood, crossing the room to what was going to be her bed. Luke watched her silently for a few moments before he finally spoke one more time.

"Thank you again; for everything," he said sincerely. Aria turned back to him, smiling slightly as she pulled the covers of her bed back.

"Get some sleep Luke. I'll be right here when you wake up."

Luke closed his eyes, settling back into the bed and allowing himself to drift. Across the room, he could hear Aria singing softly to herself. Luke allowed himself a small, sleepy smile when he heard what she was singing.

"Father once spoke of an angel; I used to dream he'd appear. Now as I sing, I can sense him and I know he's here. Here in this room he calls me softly, somewhere inside hiding. Somehow I know he's always with me; he, the unseen genius...Angel of Music, guide and guardian, grant to me your glory..."

Luke hummed in content, listening to her sing of the Angel of Music as he slowly drifted, happy to just listen to her sing as she had when he was unconscious before he finally fell asleep.

* * *

Darth Vader had been meditating when the five had arrived on the _Executor_. He'd been prodding the Force to reveal something about the mysterious four, and was frustrated when he received nothing other than an assurance that the girl and her three friends were not his enemy. He didn't want assurances that they weren't a threat, he wanted to know who they were and what it was that made him feel like there was something important about them that he was missing, something central to everything that was happening.

Vader was pulled from his frustrated musings by a sudden wave of raw emotion from his son situated just across the hall from him. The explosion of sudden, pure _feeling_ , with no real direction as to _what_ the boy was feeling, threw Vader off and pulled him sharply out of his meditating. Vader's damaged eyelids opened, allowing him to stare in a mixture of curiosity and anger at the stark white wall of his meditation chamber. With a scowl and a glare, Vader worked to mask his presence from his son, stretching out to test the emotions that were stirring in the room across the hall.

The dominating emotion from Luke was shock, though Vader was quick to observe that Luke did not feel threatened, so he did not rush into the other room to see what was happening. Instead, he prodded around the room to see who had decided to stay with Luke. Just as he'd expected, it was Aria that was rooming with the young man; it was also Aria that was the source of Luke's shock. Just what had brought this reaction around?

Vader continued to monitor Luke's fluctuating emotions, receiving waves of compassion, emotional pain, disbelief, sympathy, a flash of anger at one point, curiosity, awe, amusement, confusion, hope, and...was that...

Vader pulled away when he felt Luke slip into unconsciousness, writing off the flicker of affection he'd sensed as imagined at the least, thoughts of someone else at the most. For several long moments, Vader stared at the wall, contemplating what he would do next. He could sense the girl was still awake, checking on his son before she too retired to bed. Her companions he could only sense vaguely, something that was a great source of his suspicion. The way their minds were shielded, the way their presences were dampened was too...practiced. Perhaps if he approached them now, he would be able to throw them off, and since they were separated from the girl—who obviously played more of a part than she had let on—he might actually get some answers. It was simple interrogation tactics.

On the other hand, as soon as the girl was asleep...he had been informed that she did have some possessions in a backpack, and he suspected that there might be some answers in that said backpack. Once she was asleep, he could slip in, undetected...

His mind settled, Vader allowed the meditation chamber to open and the helmet to be sealed on his head once again with its high-pitched, air-locking whine. Glaring at nothing in particular, Vader rose from his seat in the chamber, clasping his hands behind his back and stepping out into the hall. Now...now he would get some answers.


	6. Chapter 6: A Visitor and Interrogation

_**So this chapter didn't go the direction I'd expected it to go...but I think it still turned out rather well :D I'm so excited, things just keep getting worse!**_

 _ **I know, that's a bad thing for you :P**_

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* * *

Anakin stood tense in front of the viewport, watching the stars pass by with his hands clasped behind his back. Padme had just gone into the bathroom to take a much needed shower now that Anakin and Obi-Wan both had already cleaned and changed into the Imperial fatigues that were in the room, and Obi-Wan was sweeping the room for any possible cameras. He was almost done, and so far they were—surprisingly—not finding any cameras. Anakin was trying to calm himself, as he'd been on edge ever since he'd left Aria and Luke alone in the room next to them. A still-recovering fledgling Jedi, and a non-Force Sensitive that didn't even belong in this galaxy; what a wonderful combination!

To make things _so_ much better, Luke was probably being told more right now than Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme had been told this entire time. For some reason, that irked Anakin...perhaps because he, Obi-Wan, and Padme had known Aria longer, but Luke came into the picture and it felt like she was ready to lay everything that she kept from Anakin and the others at the other Skywalker's feet; that bothered Anakin. A lot.

Obi-Wan came up beside Anakin. "I can't find anything, so at least we're not bugged or being watched. There's no telling about Luke and Aria's room though." When Anakin was silent, Obi-Wan appraised him silently for several long moments. "Would you care to share what's got you so deep in thought your actually bordering on actual meditation right now, which I know drives you insane."

Anakin huffed in annoyance. "It's Aria. She's kept all this information from us, and the moment Luke's able to grasp whatever she throws at him, she's just giving him all of this information. It bothers me, and its just...its just not fair! Why would she tell him all this stuff, but not us?"

Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Have you thought about how what she's telling him is the past for him? That what she knows, if she tells him, could save him lots of pain, or questioning for his entire life? Could fill in gaps for things he doesn't know?"

Anakin growled low in his throat. "Oh, and it won't do that for us?"

Obi-Wan frowned. "Calm yourself Anakin; you're not thinking clearly, and you're letting your anger cloud your thoughts."

Anakin sighed. "I'm sorry Master, just...all of this has me so confused and on edge...and we're right across the hall from a Sith Lord that apparently we can't even show our faces too, and Aria and Luke are on the other side of the wall alone, so it would take a while to get to them if something should happen. On top of that, I keep getting the feeling Aria wants to be here, and that's not helping my nerves at all."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, I agree with you there, she does seem to want to be here...but I think her focus is Luke with that. She wants to stick by his side and doesn't want to leave him alone to Vader."

Anakin shook his head. "That's another thing; Vader. He's Luke's father! And she never even told us; she took special care to keep almost any details about Vader a secret, and I want to know why."

Obi-Wan grimaced. "The more we learn, the more I start to understand why Aria is trying to keep this all secret...as well as the more confused I get. We're obviously missing some very key elements...and I have the feeling those elements will continue to elude us."

"Or everything will blow up in our faces. I'd rather it didn't, but I think they just might." Anakin shook his head. "She's playing a dangerous game, and as much as I like Aria, I think she's in way over her head. She's dealing with a war and a Sith Lord now. It's not just who to give what information anymore."

"She knew she was handling lives when she started; I'd know considering the conversation she had with me," Obi-Wan said grimly. Anakin nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you have a point there." Anakin stopped. "Wait...what did she tell you?"

Obi-Wan suddenly grew cautious. "What did she tell you?"

Anakin shifted uncomfortably. "She, ah...told me about something that could happen if I'm not careful...and showed me how someone died so I could do something to save them...You?"

"Told me about someone who would die if I didn't allow someone else to take action soon...and gave me the explanation that something really bad would happen if said person died," Obi-Wan said just as elusively as Anakin.

Anakin sighed and looked away, back out toward the stars. "Well...at least she is aware that she's handling lives and not just names."

"Mm, it wouldn't be good if she didn't realize the gravity her choices have. I sense she does know she's playing a dangerous game...whether or not she knows _how_ to play the game is another issue entirely."

They stopped talking as a cold wave washed over the room. Obi-Wan moved to the refresher door and knocked. When he sensed Padme's acknowledgement, he called out. "Stay in there, keep the water running, don't come out till we tell you."

He didn't even get to register any compliance before the door to their room swished open. Obi-Wan and Anakin both stiffened, and Anakin felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end moments before a mechanical respirator noise filled the room around them.

* * *

Aria was sitting on her bed in the room, shuffling through some of the papers on Anakin's time as Vader and occasionally staring out the viewscreen, when it happened. The air around her suddenly turned cold, and she felt like someone was breathing down her neck. Across the room, Luke was no longer sleeping peacefully. His face contorted into a grimace, and he tossed weakly in his bed, obviously in some form of distress. Aria glanced worriedly at the door as she hurried silently across the room to Luke's bed, being as gentle as possible so she didn't startle him too badly. She placed a hand on his shoulder, lightly shaking him.

"Luke...Luke, get up," she whispered urgently. He jerked awake, looking like he would have flown into a defensive position if he'd had the energy. At the moment, he was still weak, obviously, since he'd hardly even rested.

"What...what's going on?" he asked groggily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. At least he was a little better and could sit up on his own now. "Where's Vader?"

"You looked like you were having a nightmare," Aria said seriously. Luke shook his head.

"I was but..." he frowned, pausing. "Something's not right...something doesn't _feel_ right and...it's so cold..." he murmured, shivering.

"I know, it just...feels like something's going to happen," Aria said quietly, her hand still on his shoulder. Luke gave her a strange look.

"Something is happening...right next door too," Luke said worriedly, casting his gaze at the wall behind them. Aria sucked in a sharp breath.

"Oh no..." she murmured. "You don't think...Vader didn't..."

"If Vader's in there, he hasn't recognized them..." Luke suddenly paled. "What if he—oh Force, what if he figures it out and tried to kill them?"

Aria felt the blood drain from her face as well. "If they die...numerous people, as well as Vader himself, and you, will cease to exist. This galaxy will be even worse off than it is now."

Luke was about to respond when he suddenly doubled over with a groan, right into Aria's arms. "Luke!"

Luke gasped in air, trembling violently in Aria's arms. He seemed unable to speak to tell her what was happening, though Aria could hear the sudden rush of footsteps outside the door and hear some creaking metal and raised voices in the next room. What was being said, she wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She wasn't sure she wanted to see what was going on over there either.

"Luke," she said again, running her hand up and down his back in the most comforting gesture that she could when she herself was shaking like a leaf, afraid of what was going to happen next. She unfortunately didn't have to wait long, because in the next moment the door was sliding open and Anakin and Obi-Wan were pushed unceremoniously into the room by a small horde of Stormtroopers, closely followed by Darth Vader. Now she didn't bother to hide the fact that she was afraid, because she had a good reason to be.

Luke grasped her arm lightly, as if he was trying to keep her by him as she rose from her spot on the bed. In retrospect, it might have been safer to stay by the son in an attempt to retain some scrap of safety. Instead, she rushed over to kneel beside Anakin and Obi-Wan, who had been tossed to the floor roughly. Anakin looked very...unhappy, to say the least.

"He knows," Obi-Wan managed to mumbled out before Aria found herself being approached by a very, very, _very_ furious Sith Lord. Aria scrambled to her feet once more as she found the Sith bearing down relentlessly on her, nearly tripping over her own two feet as she scrambled backwards towards the viewscreen.

"You have one chance and one chance only to give me the truth girl; chose your words wisely," Vader snarled, advancing on her even when Aria was pressed flush against the viewscreen glass. Aria's mind raced. What did Vader know? Did he know they were Jedi? Did he know who they were? She risked a fearful glance towards the two, letting her mind soak in the fact there was a blaster pressed not only into the back of Obi-Wan's head, but the back of Anakin's as well. Surely Vader didn't know who they were then? Surely he just thought they were two Jedi...

"I already told you we're not your enemies," she managed to say, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say as Vader's hand came up and formed a fist in the familiar choking shape. Aria felt cold, weightless, invisible fingers wrap around her throat, and it took every single one of her instincts not to let her eyes go as wide as saucers. She did, however, allow a hand to fly to her throat; she didn't resist the motion with the panic that was flying through her. For the first time in her life, she was in a life or death situation; and it scared the ever-loving Force out of her.

"The Jedi are known enemies of the Empire; the fact these two are Jedi instantly makes them my enemies, and makes you guilty by association. I will admit, I'm impressed you managed to keep them hidden from me this long...but no longer; you obviously have a death wish. Consider that wish granted," Vader hissed, tightening his grip on Aria. Aria gasped fruitlessly for air, slouching against the glass of the viewport. She could practically feel the sadistic pleasure Vader was finding in all of this...

"Let her go!" Anakin shouted from his spot on the ground, fighting the Stormtroopers that had him pinned. His anger was also palpable, and a crack appeared in the viewport. "She has nothing to do with this, nothing at all!"

"She has everything to do with this; I know, I can sense it," Vader snarled. Another crack appeared, courtesy of Anakin once again, and Aria's vision turned dark around the edge. Her lungs were screaming in protest...

"Father, let her go, please!" Luke pleaded. A loud thud momentarily distracted Vader, and his grip on Aria's neck loosened as he turned to see Luke had tried to get out of bed and fallen to the floor. Aria sucked in a breath of sweet air before Vader constricted her throat yet again, and she was struggling once more.

"I have no reason to," Vader snarled, tightening his grip once more. Aria was sure he was going to snap her neck at this rate.

"Please, Father, she saved my life," Luke argued, his tone desperate.

"No she didn't, I did!" Vader thundered.

"She's the one who told me to reach out to you; I never would have had she not convinced me," Luke fought back. "I owe her my life just as much as I owe you."

His voice shook at the last statement.

"That does not concern me," Vader growled. Aria closed her eyes. She was going to die; she'd hardly been in the Star Wars universe a few days, and she was already going to die, and by Vader's hand too. How ironic.

"Please, they don't have anything to do with this war! Father—Father, i-if you s-spare them..." Luke hesitated, and Aria felt an even worse sense of panic at the thought of what he was about to say, though at the same time, almost everything had faded to black. "I'll join you."

Vader was so shocked he actually dropped Aria completely. Aria fell unceremoniously to the floor, gasping in air in sweet relief, tears streaming down her face she was so relieved. At the same time...she'd never been so scared in her life.

"What did you say?" Vader asked, his voice as low as his vocoder would probably allow.

"Father," Luke said, ironically kneeling despite how weak he was, barely holding himself up by bracing himself on the bed. "Please, spare them. If you let them go free, if you spare their lives, I'll join you."

Vader turned to face him fully, igniting his lightsaber and leveling it at Aria's throat, ignoring Anakin and Obi-Wan's struggling on the ground. "Then pledge your allegiance," Vader said. "Or we have no deal. I want your word."

Luke shook his head, his gaze locked on Vader. "No, I want to see them safe first. When they're safe, then I'll pledge myself to you. For now, you only get my word; so long as you don't take me to the Emperor."

"You're not in a position to be making the conditions, young one," Vader growled.

Luke's gaze hardened. "I'm not pledging myself to the Empire, or to the Emperor; only you. No one else. Only if you spare their lives and let them go free."

"You hardly even know them; why would you sacrifice yourself for them?" Vader snarled, his annoyance clear in his tone. Luke's eyes flickered over to Anakin, then Obi-Wan, then Aria before his gaze settled on Vader once more.

"I know enough."

Several long moments passed before Vader inclined his head. "All right then; if you swear to align yourself with me, and serve me alone, then I will let them go free; but I'm dropping them off again the moment this ship arrives at its destination."

Luke wilted in relief. "I swear if you keep your word, I'll keep mine..." he grew silent for several long moments before he whispered in defeat, "Father and Son, just as you offered..."

Vader, obviously pleased with the turn of events, deactivated his lightsaber and turned his back on Aria. "Then we're done here...for tonight. I still expect answers," Vader said, jabbing a threatening finger at Aria before he pushed on. The Stormtroopers hauled Anakin and Obi-Wan to their feet as Vader swept by, and Luke called out to him one last time.

"How much longer until we arrive?" Luke called.

"Two days," Vader rumbled, and with that he was gone. The Stormtroopers were pushing Anakin and Obi-Wan out the door once more, though the two were resisting trying to get in some last words.

"You didn't have to do that," Anakin told him, his eyes hard. Luke met the younger version of his father's eyes forlornly, a misery beyond his years reflecting in his eyes.

"Trust me...I did..." Luke said softly, sagging against the bed.

Anakin reluctantly tore his gaze from Luke, fighting the Stormtroopers to the last moment as he turned to Aria. "Aria—Aria, are you all right?" he called, digging his heels in.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she called back. "Soon, Victor. Just like you've wanted to since Vader arrived...soon."

He frowned, momentarily confused at her words, but he'd already been shoved away, and the door slid shut with a resounding thud. Aria dragged herself to her feet, stumbling over to Luke's weak form on the floor. She was still trembling from adrenaline and fear, but she managed to help him back on the bed.

"Luke...why did you do it? You can't join him, you know what will come from that," Aria begged. "I believe Vader can be redeemed, but I don't think joining him is the way to do it. You risk losing yourself in the process..." Aria cried softly.

Luke shook his head. "I needed to; he was going to kill you, and he was going to kill them too. It was the only thing I could think of that would ensure he let you all go."

Aria helped Luke get situated back into the bed, taking in the tired slump of his shoulders and the defeated look in his eyes. It roused her to action. "You won't have to pledge yourself to him," she said firmly.

"Yes, I will; I gave him my word," Luke mumbled.

Aria shook her head avidly. "No, you won't, because we're going to break out before he can let us go and you're obligated to pledge yourself to him."

"And just how do you plan to do that?" Luke asked, his tone perhaps a little harsher than he'd meant it to be. Aria smiled sadly at him.

"I've got a Kenobi and two Skywalkers; I'm sure we can figure it out," she said, casting her gaze towards the cracks in the viewscreen that Anakin had caused, comfortingly running her hand through Luke's hair with her still slightly trembling fingers. She thought she might have an idea...

Absentmindedly, she started to sing a short tune that had raced through her head as Vader had started to strangle the life out of her out loud, her mind swirling with thoughts of Vader and what had just happened. "Oh death, oh death, oh death...won't you spare over another year..."

After the quick song, she had an idea. Turning to Luke, she allowed herself a small smile. "We're even now on the life saving, but I'm going to need you to do something..."

* * *

Anakin and Obi-Wan were thrown roughly to the floor of their own room, the door locking behind them before they could even push themselves to their feet. Anakin hurt all over; his head where the blaster had been pressed and where Vader had yanked viciously on his Padawan Braid when he'd discovered it, his stomach where Vader had punched him when Anakin had fought back...

Long story short, Anakin hurt.

Fury was still coursing through his veins from what had just happened. The Sith had almost killed Aria, almost strangled her to death right in front of them; Anakin hadn't felt so panicked in a long time. Then Luke had pledged himself, aligned himself with the same Sith that had almost killed them all. Of course, it had been to save their skins, but Anakin still didn't like it in the least bit.

At least Padme hadn't witnessed any of that nightmare...

Padme!

Anakin forced himself to his feet, rushing over to the refresher where the water could still be heard. He knocked adamantly on the door. "Padme! Padme!"

The door slid open immediately. "Anakin!"

The next moment he had a petite brunette held close, comforting her as she trembled in his arms. "Anakin, what happened?" she asked breathlessly, obviously still spooked. Anakin had no doubt that she'd heard the fight that had ensued upon Vader's discovery of Anakin's Padawan Braid, and she'd probably feared the worst.

"Vader found out Obi-Wan and I are Jedi, but we're fine now...Luke made him a deal so he'd back off," Anakin murmured into her hair.

"What kind of deal?" Padme asked wearily, pulling away. Anakin grimaced.

"That's where things get complicated..."

* * *

Vader didn't go back into his meditation chamber, but he didn't go to the bridge either. Instead, he chose to pace the length of his quarters, stewing over what had just happened.

His son had offered to join him—willingly! And was going to pledge himself fully to Vader, and Vader alone. The Emperor would not be taking his son away from him any time soon...then again...there was that other Jedi, the younger one...

He'd had much anger in him—especially when the girl's life had been at stake. Vader had not missed the fact the young Padawan's anger had cracked the viewscreen glass. Perhaps there truly was a reason that, when Vader had moved to kill the two Jedi where they stood upon his discovery of their true identity, the Force had practically screamed, demanding he not kill them. It hadn't just been the dark side either—it had been the Force as a whole, screaming at Vader not to kill the two.

They were far more important than Vader had once thought.

Perhaps...he would bend the agreement between him and his son, just a little. He wanted to know more about this small group of four. He _needed_ to know more. He still had to see the woman; he had to know what made them so important that Luke had been sent into such emotional chaos earlier and had willingly thrown himself to Vader for their lives, though he hardly knew them.

Yes, there was much more to them then he was seeing. Perhaps the younger one would make a good apprentice as well. If he could manage to control both of them and get both Luke and the Padawan under his control, the Emperor truly would not stand a chance...but the Padawan was a risk...he needed more time to figure that one out.

Luke never did specifically define what he meant when he'd said to let them go free...


	7. Chapter 7: Detonation

_**Oh gosh, it took much longer than it should have to write this, namely cause I was traveling and then I got sick. lovely stuff.**_

 _ **Sooooooo**_

 _ **Things are about to get interesting...hehehe**_

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* * *

Anakin sat forlornly on the edge of his bed, staring at the floor as he mulled over everything that had happened. Padme and Obi-Wan were fast asleep in their respective beds, though Anakin could sense that Luke and Aria were still awake next door—tired, but for whatever reason still awake—and it seemed Vader was still awake as well.

Absentmindedly, his gaze wandered to the couch where he and Obi-Wan had hidden their lightsabers when they'd first arrived in this room; that simple act had saved them from being relieved of their weapons when Vader came.

Anakin lifted his gaze to the wall that led into Luke and Aria's room, leaning forward and propping his chin on his hand. He'd been so sure that the Sith Lord was going to kill the young girl, and it had scared Anakin more than he'd thought it would. Then what Luke had done to save her...to save all of them...

It sent a lance of guilt through Anakin's heart that they had put the young man in the situation that he was in right now. Tortured to death and barely brought back, just to be held captive by his Sith Lord father and then offer himself in exchange for their lives, doomed to live in a darkness he never wanted...

He sighed, running his hand down his face. Everything had gone wrong for them from the moment that they had walked through that portal...and yet...he kept getting the feeling that at least something was going right, even if he couldn't see it. At least Aria tended to act like their situation was a comfortable one...sometimes. Being so close to death, feeling the Force shrieking in panic when Vader had moved to kill them, seeing Vader nearly kill Aria...seeing Luke offer himself...that was what made Anakin believe that they were in a horrible situation. The scary part was he couldn't quite see a way out of it either. Something told him that fighting Vader was out of the question, and he doubted that they could just slip away...

Anakin stiffened.

A presence hesitantly brushed against his mind.

 _...Anakin?_

Anakin blinked several times in surprise, staring at a single spot on the wall as he tried to process the voice that had whispered in his mind. Telepathy wasn't entirely unheard of...but it wasn't exactly an easy feat either. Carefully, unsure that he was even doing it right, Anakin reached back, all the while trying to figure out how this was possible.

 _Luke?_

Anakin felt relief roll off of the other Skywalker. _Oh, good, it worked, we weren't sure it would._

 _We?_

 _Aria mentioned when I called out to a close friend of mine through the Force, and suggested I try to do the same to get in contact with you._

Anakin frowned. _What for?_

 _We have a plan to escape. It's a not much of a plan really, and it's risky, and most of it will have to be improvised...but it's better than nothing._

Anakin felt a flicker of amusement at his words. _I'm listening..._

* * *

Two days passed since Vader had discovered Anakin and Obi-Wan were Jedi. Two days was all the time Luke had to recover enough strength to support his own weight and move around on his own; they wouldn't really know if he could move on his own until the moment he needed to came, as they didn't want to drain him to any degree at all. He'd remained on bed rest this entire time, just as nervous as the rest of them. Anakin had shared the plan—if it could even be called a plan—with the others, and Aria and Luke had repeatedly gone over details, which was mainly Luke filling in the gaps in Aria's knowledge and Aria explaining Anakin and Obi-Wan's current limitations and abilities that could assist the group on their endeavor.

All that was left was to wait for the right moment; the moment when Vader was nowhere near his quarters, and they were also out of hyperspace.

Aria looked up from her spot on Luke's bed when she heard the telltale sound of the door opening around the usual meal time—dinner, if she wasn't loosing track of time amid everything else. She sat the only picture she owned of the _Executor_ that had a label of where the hangar was on the bed and got up as the Stormtrooper sat their two trays on the floor, turned, and left without a word. Aria retrieved the trays with a sigh, handing Luke the tray that looked like it had the larger portion on it as she took her seat back.

"I really wish I had something more detailed; something that will actually give us corridors to follow along. Now would be a good time for R2 to be around," she said with a shake of her head, picking at the food absentmindedly. Luke's lips quirked up just a little.

"I'm sure between the five of us we can work our way back the way we came in to the main hangar," he assured her. She'd been worried about that detail for quite some time now. Luke glanced at his tray, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously at hers; apparently he'd noticed that she'd given him the one with the larger portion, though by the way she was picking at hers he didn't think she looked that hungry right now. So, he didn't say anything on the subject.

"Still...when we actually manage to get our hands on a shuttle, I'm afraid I won't be much help, as I'm from another galaxy entirely and have never been in a spaceship until that moment when we were transported. Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme are just, oh...twenty-five years behind on technology? Anakin's extremely talented at flying though, and it doesn't take him long to figure out the controls; he could definitely act as your co-pilot...Obi-Wan's great assistance too, as is Padme..." Aria trailed off and smiled to herself. "Wow, I feel like such great help."

"You've kept us all alive and together for the most part up until now; I'd say you've been crucial to our survival," Luke said, his eyes twinkling just a little as he spoke.

"Let's hope I can keep us that way," she muttered, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Luke's expression softened, and he took the papers away from her gently and gestured towards her tray.

"You should eat something; you've hardly touched anything they've given you to eat since we've got here," Luke reprimanded her. Aria shook her head.

"I'm the kind of person that will get so engrossed in a project they forget to eat, or to sleep, or any other basic need; besides, I'm still adjusting to all...this," she said with a small smile, waving a hand all around her.

"Still; you're making sure I'm eating, so it's only right that I do the same thing for you," Luke said with a nod of his head. Aria's smile grew a little.

"I suppose it's only fair," she said with a shrug, turning back to her meal. Her eyes ghosted over the room, thinking of how their two days were up. If Vader's estimate had been right—and she was pretty sure that he was—then they'd have to make their escape tonight. Her stomach did little nervous flips at the thought; could they really escape from the _Executor_? From _Vader_?

Aria stopped as her eyes settled on the viewport in the room she shared with Luke. The stars were no longer a beautiful blue blur; they were set in place, unmoving in the vast darkness of space. Aria felt her heart clench nervously.

"Luke..." she said softly. Luke glanced at her expectantly before he caught the expression on her face and cast his eyes towards the viewport. He too paused before he suddenly closed his eyes, probably stretching out with the Force.

"Vader's on the bridge," he murmured. "I don't know how long...but he's not anywhere nearby right now."

Aria set her tray down, pushing off of the bed and rushing to her backpack where her original clothes and Luke's original clothes were stuffed. She tossed him his black button down and brown trousers, bunching her clothes up in her hand and firmly zipping the backpack shut before making her way to the refresher. "Tell the others; I'll be out in a moment," she said in a rush, feeling excitement and adrenaline rush through her veins as well as fear. This was it; and if they failed, they were going to most likely pay with their lives.

Aria peeled out of her Imperial fatigues in record time, donning her jeans, t-shirt, and now-clean jacket before she emerged once again from the refresher. Luke was standing just fine on his own—and looking rather pleased with himself about it too—by the coffee table, back in his original clothes even though they were a little tattered from his time being tortured. In the wall right by Luke's bed, a hole was being cut in the wall by two blue lightsabers. Aria felt excitement rush through her once again as she made her way to her backpack, pulling out the three or four papers that she had gotten ready the day before. She put them in order and placed them hastily on the bed before she returned to Luke's side, securing her backpack on her back with both straps.

The lightsabers retracted, and with a shove assisted by the Force, the chunk of the wall was pushed out of its spot and caught just before it could clatter to the floor, held up by Anakin. The three were back in the clothes they normally wore, with Anakin and Obi-Wan in full traditional Jedi clothes. Once Anakin had set the chunk of the wall carefully on the floor so it wouldn't make any noise, the three joined Aria and Luke.

"So...are we ready for this?" Aria asked.

"I still don't think it's that great of a plan," Obi-Wan said with a small shake of his head.

"It's not even a plan really; more of a goal and a mix of ideas on how to achieve that goal," Aria said in amusement. "Luke, Padme, and I can just relieve the guards of their blasters on our way out."

"We're going to have to be quick; as soon as Vader realizes what's happening, he'll be right on our tail," Luke said seriously, already taking up a position by the door with Obi-Wan and Anakin, whose lightsabers were humming gently.

"Duly noted," Anakin said, closing his eyes for several moments. Obi-Wan was doing the same on the other side of the door, a palm pressed against the cool metal wall. The two opened their eyes, shared a look and a nod, and then shoved their activated lightsabers through two precise points in the wall. They held their lightsabers there for a few heartbeats, and then retracted the blades. Obi-Wan waved his hand to open the door with the Force.

"I'm guessing you just took care of the guards?" Aria asked casually, stepping over the threshold. The two Stormtrooper bodies acted as her confirmation, and she did her best not to look at them, a small wave of queasiness overtaking her for a moment as she stepped passed the bodies with the holes in their chests. Padme and Luke both took the blasters from the dead guards, checking the weapons while Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed to the edge of the hall to peek around the corner.

"No going back now," Aria mumbled, keeping somewhere between Anakin and Luke as they continued along the halls.

"How long do you think before the alarm's raised?" Padme asked.

"Not long," Luke responded. "It's best if we cover as much ground _before_ the alarm is raised; that's just my opinion."

"I think I actually agree with you there," Anakin muttered. Moments later, his lightsaber flashed as he ran a Stormtrooper through that had been turning the corner.

"With the body trail it looks like we'll be leaving, it shouldn't take long for the alarm to get set off," Padme said tartly with a shake of her head.

"We haven't even reached the real resistance yet," Luke said cheerily.

Obi-Wan turned the corner up ahead then fell into an immediate defensive position as he suddenly found himself deflecting a barrage of blaster bolts. Anakin joined him, and Padme and Luke took up positions around the corner, leaning over and sending return fire with the bolts that Obi-Wan and Anakin were deflecting.

"How many?" Aria asked Luke when he pulled his head back from around the corner.

"Ten, maybe," Luke responded promptly, turning around the corner yet again to open fire.

Aria grimaced. "You don't think the alarm's already been raised, do you?" she asked seriously.

Luke shook his head with a sigh. "It's possible; that doesn't mean we're going back though. Best to act like the only way is forwards."

Aria smiled. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

Anakin deflected the last shot. "All right, come on, it's a long ways to the hangar."

Aria sighed. "I think we'll have to be ready for that hyperspace jump before we even get out of the hangar."

"We'll handle it, don't worry," Anakin assured her, gesturing for Luke, Padme, and Aria to catch up to Obi-Wan and him. Luke came even with Anakin and Obi-Wan, his eyes scanning the halls around him expertly, while Padme and Aria stayed just behind the Jedi. Aria was still weaponless, but she wasn't about to complain; she could fire a normal gun, but blasters...

They were only kind of the same thing.

* * *

Luke rushed ahead, pressing himself against the right wall to peer around the corner of the T-intersection ahead, blaster ready while Padme checked the left side. What came next, none of them were expecting.

Luke took a step around the apparently clear corridor, and a ray shield suddenly sprang to life, cutting him off from the rest of the group. Luke whipped around almost the same moment that it appeared, blaster poised and ready for any incoming Stormtroopers. Behind Aria and the other three, Stormtroopers suddenly rushed around the corner, blaster's blazing. Luke grimaced.

"Go on and find another way, I'll meet you in the hangar," Luke told them as they rushed for cover. Before anyone could protest, Luke had turned and ran down the hall. Aria grimaced.

"I don't like the thought of him separated from our group," she muttered, following Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme at a sprint down the left corridor.

"We're just going to have to make due and hope that he finds his way to the hangar. There's nothing else we can do about it," Obi-Wan told her sternly.

The reached another T-intersection after a decent amount of time spent avoiding the Stormtroopers that were swarming the halls. Collectively, they turned left instead of going straight, and Aria hardly even had time to register the large cannon mounted in the middle of the hall before Anakin suddenly grabbed her by the arms.

"Get down!" he shouted, pulling her back into the corridor across from the one they had just come from. Obi-Wan pulled Padme back into the corridor they'd came from, and just in time too, as a blast of heat from the shot ripped over Aria and Anakin, and she felt heat sear her cheek. When they looked up again, Obi-Wan and Padme had been separated from Aria and Anakin by another ray shield.

"They're purposely splitting us up," Aria said loudly, so that Obi-Wan and Padme could hear too.

"We'll have to deal with it and just stay out of their grasp," Anakin said through grit teeth.

"We'll find another way," Obi-Wan called. "Make sure they don't separate us any further!"

Anakin grasped Aria's wrist. "Come on; I think I know how to get there."

"Your gut or the Force?" she asked.

"Both."

* * *

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he crept along the practically empty halls. He could hear the blaster fire elsewhere, but he hardly ever ran into trouble himself. Yes there was the occasional Stormtrooper or Officer, but other than that...no one.

Luke fingered the trigger on his blaster nervously. Not only his gut, but the Force as well told him that he was headed for danger; but it couldn't be helped. He needed to get to that shuttle; furthermore, he was the only one in this party of five that could actually comfortably fly the shuttle they were going to hijack. He just wished he still had his lightsaber, or had found the time to make a new one...

Luke's train of thought was interrupted as he came around the corner, reacting on instinct to fire at and take out the two Stormtroopers standing by the door. Was he really already at the hangar?

Luke sidestepped the two bodies then used the Force to open the door. Immediately after he stepped through the doorway, he froze. No one could be seen; something was terribly, terribly wrong here...

A shot came out of nowhere, and he received no warning from the Force as he was apparently not the target, the red bolt flying through the air so close to his face he smelled singed hair before it crashed into the control panel and the door slid shut with a resounding thud. He suddenly felt urged to _move_ , not backwards, but forwards, to the first shuttle he could find. Moving faster than he had in quite a while, Luke rushed between crates and TIEs until he finally made it to a Lambda-class shuttle near the middle of the hangar. Looking to his right a few paces from the shuttle, he could see one entrance to the hangar still open, and to his left there was another—

The sound of even paced, mechanical breathing filled the room and caused Luke's heart to jump into his throat and his face to drain of all color as his father stepped into view, two meters of towering fury. Subconsciously, Luke took a step back and reached out through the Force, hoping to sense Anakin or Obi-Wan somewhere nearby, somewhere that would allow them to get here quickly...

So far into the action, it was like he hit a wall. A freezing, solid, black wall that chilled Luke to the core and caused his breathing to hitch for a moment. He didn't even bother taking a shot; he knew it would be useless. He was cornered and helpless; completely vulnerable.

"Father...I can explain," he said shakily, trying to clamp down on his growing terror. He could taste his father's rage and feel it in the air as if it were its own separate, tangible _being_.

Vader let out a feral snarl, raising a hand in an all too familiar gesture. Luke felt his airway instantly and remorselessly close, with no room for any air to get through. Luke sank to his knee as panic iced his veins and the blaster clattered to the floor, his mouth agape as he tried uselessly to breathe sweet air into his lungs. Vader lifted him in the air, Luke's feet swinging and kicking slightly, forcing Luke to stare in silent horror into the emotionless black mask of Darth Vader—well, not quite so silent; Luke's dry, airless rasps filled the air right along with Vader's mechanical breathing.

"I saved your life, made sure you were given the best of treatment and care, allowed your new _friends_ to stay with you when I brought you out of that jail instead of letting you rot, spared your _Jedi_ friends lives...and this is how you repay me," Vader hissed dangerously, his grip tightening on Luke's throat and causing Luke to make a strangled sound of pain. A terrifying realization struck Luke, and dread settled firmly in his gut. He was going to die; Vader had no control of himself right now, and in his anger...

 _Force...he's going to kill me..._

"Father..." he managed to force out. "P-please...d-d-don't..."

"You've betrayed me, just as your mother did; I should have expected nothing less," Vader snarled, and his grip tightened once again. Luke gagged slightly, his eyes sliding closed, his head pounding, hands gripping his throat on instinct. He tried to speak, but he couldn't; he could only wait to die and plead uselessly in his mind.

 _Father, please, don't do this..._

* * *

Anakin pulled Aria along at a speed she wasn't entirely sure she could keep up with. The air all around him screamed of urgency, and he seemed set in his path, undeterred. His lightsaber was tight in his grasp, and any obstacle they came across he cut down without any effort or thought.

"How do you know where we're going?" Aria asked.

"Just follow me," Anakin answered immediately, still dragging her along by her wrist. Along they went, tunnel by tunnel, twist after twist.

They finally came to a door.

Anakin pulled her back, keeping her from slamming into the door head on at the speeds they were going, at the same time that he waved his hand to open the door.

They both froze in shock at the scene they stumbled upon. Directly across the hangar, on the other side, Obi-Wan and Padme had also appeared in a doorway, frozen in equal horror.

Darth Vader stood feet away from a Lambda-class shuttle, holding Luke midair in a Force Choke while Luke tried unsuccessfully to break free. His desperate croaks echoed around the empty hangar as he struggled futilely for air and freedom. Aria couldn't tear her eyes away; she was frozen in place...

...Vader wasn't letting go...

...Luke was going to die...

Anakin moved forward but Aria grabbed his arm. " _No_! If you kill Vader then all you'll do is postpone Luke's death to a later date. Vader's the reason Luke survived the confrontation with the Emperor; Vader saved his life."

"And he's going to end it if we don't _do_ something," Anakin snapped right back. "I won't just stand here and do _nothing_!"

Aria cast her fearful gaze back towards Luke, panic gripping her. He was dying, she could see it; it was in the way he moved, jerky, sudden, his eyes closed but when she got a glimpse it looked like his eyes were starting to roll back. Even if Anakin was to interfere, there was no time; and she knew that Vader was fully capable of holding Anakin off and maintaining the Force Choke on Luke at the same time. Desperation and fear overtook her, and she stepped forward, into the room...towards Vader.

She closed her eyes for a fraction of a second, knowing that everything was about to explode, and she was tossing all that careful manipulation of information flow out the window.

She opened her eyes, her words echoing loud and clear through the hangar.

"Let him go, Anakin, please! You're _killing_ him!" she screamed.

Vader dropped Luke, not because she asked, but because he seemed shocked that she had addressed him by his true name, the name he'd once gone by. Aria was already running towards the two before Luke even hit the ground with a rattling gasp, coughing, shaking, tears of pain—perhaps even emotional pain—streaming down his face. Vader reached for his lightsaber as Aria approached, but she was hardly paying attention; her attention was focused entirely on Luke, who was lying on the ground, breathing heavily as he tried to re-gather himself after coming so near to death—again. Aria skid onto her knees to Luke's side, putting a hand protectively on his chest as she scrambled to get him on his feet. She heard the whoosh of a blade cutting through the air and braced herself for Vader's fatal swing.

It never came.

Luke was staring at the blue blade hovering above him, blocking the red blade from ending his life as well as Aria's.

Aria turned her head to see Anakin standing tall and defiant in front of Vader, his lightsaber locked and unrelenting under his older Sith self's blade.

"You are either incredibly brave or extremely foolish," Vader snarled at Anakin. Anakin was hardly fazed by the comment.

"Probably both," Anakin growled back, breaking away from their locked blades before he attacked Vader once more in a full on assault. Aria didn't have time to marvel at the astounding sight of Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan verses Darth Vader, Sith Lord once Anakin Skywalker Jedi Knight. She grabbed Luke under the arms and hefted him up.

"Go, go," she said urgently as they both backed rapidly away from the already intense fight, rushing to the shuttle. The ramp took too long for Aria's taste, though it allowed her to glance back at the fight. Red blade clashed violently against blue, back and force at dizzying speeds. Several times Anakin had to break away and back off, but he always came right back at Vader with fiery determination, refusing to let the Sith get ahold of Luke or Aria again. Vader seemed almost like he was _playing_ with Anakin, fighting one handed, blade coming uncomfortably close to ending the fight several times; but Aria tried not to think of that. Anakin would be all right, he would come out of this fight...mostly in one piece, right?

The ramp lowered and Luke stumbled inside, headed straight for the cockpit. Aria stayed on the ramp, ushering Padme and Obi-Wan forward as the two dashed across the hangar; it seemed they had brought company, as numerous Stormtroopers were hot on their heels. Obi-Wan pushed Padme forward towards the ramp, turning back around to deflect the shots that were being fired on the two woman while he occasionally sent worried glances behind him at Anakin and Vader, obviously wanting to jump in and help but occupied at the moment. Padme crouched down by the best cover she could find, returning fire on the Stormtroopers as the shuttles engines roared to life. Aria wilted in relief and turned her attention back to the fight between Anakin and Vader.

It happened so quickly, Aria wasn't entirely sure she really knew what she'd just seen.

Anakin's lightsaber had been locked with Vader's, and then Vader broke away and batted Anakin's lightsaber away with a seemingly effortless flick of his wrist. The red blade came up faster than the eye could follow, but Anakin managed to turn himself away so that the worst of the attack could be avoided. Still, with a cry, Anakin went down, a hand instinctively flying towards his right eye where the tip of Vader's blade had met skin.

Anakin pulled his hand away almost immediately, trying to get back to his feet, but Vader's blade was already pointed at his chest and mere inches away from impaling the young Jedi. Aria felt a jolt of shock when she saw Vader had left a mark identical to the one Ventress had left. Anakin had just received the scar over his right eye early.

Padme turned around just in time to see Vader preparing to finish Anakin off, with Anakin staring back at him in stubborn defiance to the very last.

" _Anakin!_ "

Padme's cry rang sharply through the room, and drew everyone's attention.

Including Vader's.

Vader's helmeted head whipped around at the sound of her voice, and when he set eyes on Padme he stilled, looking for all the world as if he'd seen a ghost as Padme rushed forward without a thought.

He basically had.

"Padme?" his vocoder whispered out.

"Obi-Wan!" Aria said in alarm, watching helplessly as Padme rushed right towards the two. Obi-Wan had already turned at Padme's cry and now, as if roused from some strange dream, his hand shot out, and Vader went flying backwards, away from Anakin and Padme just as Padme reached Anakin. Padme hefted Anakin to his feet, who called his lightsaber back into his hand before they all collectively rushed for the landing ramp. Padme fired a few shots to cover their escape.

"Close the ramp!" Aria shouted towards the cockpit. "Anakin, Obi-Wan, go help Luke," she said in a frazzled tone of voice, making her way towards one of the seats with Padme by her side. The boys rushed into the cockpit, completely lost in the chaos of battle; Aria wasn't even sure if what had just happened had registered with everyone yet.

The shuttle lifted off the ground before Aria had even secured the straps of her seat, and it started to sway to the left and right as it pushed forward, obviously dodging the other ships in the hangar as Luke guided them out as swiftly as he could. Aria crossed her fingers, praying that Luke already had the hyperdrive programed so that they could leave as soon as possible and _not_ make all this progress just to be caught in the tractor beam. Someone really should have split away and disabled the tractor beam, but if they would have done that then they might not have been able to escape considering everything that had just happened...

The ship lurched to the right, crashing into something else along the way before it continued forward, and Aria grasped the armrests of her seat in a death-grip; what was going on?

* * *

Luke grit his teeth, ignoring the alarm that was currently screaming at him that they'd taken damage. So long as it didn't effect their jump into hyperspace, Luke didn't care.

"We lost out—" Obi-Wan started to say, but Luke cut him off.

"I know, we'll be fine," he said, his voice raspy. His neck throbbed in pain, and speaking just made it worse; he was positive that he was already developing bruises along his throat. His hands were still shaking slightly from the adrenaline and fear, but he managed to stay steady enough to pilot the ship. He just had to get them out of the hangar bay, and Anakin would then activate the hyperdrive as soon as they were clear of the _Executor's_ hangar. Right now, Anakin was manning the guns to cover their escape while Obi-Wan kept an eye on the readouts for Luke, who was focused solely on piloting.

Speaking of Anakin...Luke felt a little wary of him at the moment. Something about Anakin was...off...wrong. Unfortunately, he had a pretty good guess on just _what_ was wrong with him.

 _Let him go, Anakin, please! You're killing him!_

Right now, though, they were all trying to escape with their lives, so Anakin was probably bottling up his reactions for once they were safe again. Luke wasn't quite sure if he was up for that at the moment.

"They're closing the blast doors," Obi-Wan warned. Luke ground his teeth again in determination, pushing the ship to go faster and willing the doors to take a little longer to shut.

"We'll make it," He forced out, his voice cracking painfully. He angled the ship a little further to the right.

"Luke, We're not going to make it," Obi-Wan said in alarm.

"Yes we are," he said firmly, eyes never leaving the gap he was aiming for.

"Luke—"

"We're going to make it," Luke responded firmly, wishing he could push the ship to go faster even though it was already going as fast as it could. Luke's hands clenched tighter on the controls, and he angled the ship. Everyone held their breath, praying they weren't going to die...

The ship grinded loud against the wall, the high pitched whine hurting Luke's ears before they managed to push out of the gap and into open space.

"Punch it!" Luke said instantly, angling away from the Star Destroyer. Before the larger ship even had a chance to activate it's tractor beam, Anakin pushed the lever forward, and the stars bled into streaks of blessed blue. Luke groaned in relief, sagging in the pilot's chair and letting his eyes close. "We made it..." he murmured.

 _Out of the woods..._

Anakin stood up sharply from his seat without a word, turning back to the passenger seating.

 _...but into a fire._

"Anakin," Luke called, his voice holding a faint key of wariness in it as he stood from his pilot seat. Obi-Wan was right behind him as they tailed Anakin into the seating. Luke's nerves were not eased when Anakin simply ignored him and went straight for Aria, who had just unhooked herself.

Shock was putting what Luke felt mildly when Anakin suddenly grabbed the girl and pushed her into the wall. Immediately, his protective instincts kicked in and Luke forced himself between the two, placing a hand reassuringly on Aria's shoulders and holding Anakin back with the other hand. "Hey! Back off!" Luke said in a loud and strong voice, despite how much it hurt him.

"I want answers, _now_!" Anakin all but roared, his blue eyes flashing dangerously and locked on Aria. "I'm tired of these games!"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan started to reprimand him, but Anakin ignored him and continued, straining against the restraining hand Luke had placed on his chest.

"What was that back there?" Anakin said firmly, his voice suddenly twisted with emotion. "You called _him_ by my name— _my_ _name_!"

The room went silent, and Luke suddenly found himself unable to look Anakin in the eyes, letting his hand drop away from Anakin's chest but keeping firmly in front of Aria. Obi-Wan and Padme stared between Anakin and Aria in silent shock.

"Anakin, you have to let me explain," Aria said softly, but Anakin went off again.

"You didn't think to mention that Sith, that _machine_ , is...is..." Anakin couldn't bring himself to say it, and Luke looked up at Anakin when he sensed the self-disgust and denial swirling around in the other Skywalker.

"You think Darth Vader...is you?" Obi-wan asked. He too was in denial it seemed, though Padme was the one who looked like she'd gone into shock.

"You can't be the same, I mean...you're nothing like him!" Padme said, her tone reflecting her shocked state.

"It could be another Anakin entirely, I mean, it doesn't have to be you specifically," Obi-Wan said, trying to find some other explanation as he glanced between the other four.

Anakin shook his head, fixing Aria with a betrayed stare; betrayal that she would keep something like this from him. "I'm sure. Why else would he react the way he did when he heard Padme; when he saw her?" he jabbed a finger at Aria accusingly. "You said that I died _figuratively_ ; I just thought you meant that I lost the will to live or something, but now I can tell what you really meant. You meant that I turned to the dark side," he said harshly, his voice cracking on the last sentence. He spun around to look at the other two.

"If you don't think my reasoning is enough, why don't you just ask Aria; or better yet, let's ask Luke. I'm sure he knows," Anakin said angrily, turning his hard gaze on Luke. Obi-Wan and Padme both turned their gaze on Luke as well, and he felt like he'd just tasted something particularly sour. It looked like they still had a shred of hope that he would deny it, that he would tell them that it was a different Anakin, not the one standing in front of him...

"Luke...is it true?" Padme whispered.

Luke couldn't bring himself to say it; he simply turned away, unable to look any of them in the eyes. He could feel their shock, their mourning, their denial, sharp and clear through the Force. Padme slowly made her way towards one of the passenger seats, shaking her head in numb denial.

"I can't believe you...I can't..." Padme whispered, taking her seat slowly as she stared ahead. Obi-Wan also had to find a seat, though his gaze remained fixated on Aria, the gears obviously turning.

"That horrible disaster you wanted to change," Obi-Wan said quietly, firmly holding Aria's gaze. "The reason why you would pick and choose what you showed us...you wanted to keep Darth Vader from coming to life. You wanted to stop Anakin from falling."

"Yes," Aria said softly. Something in Anakin broke—Luke could feel it.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Anakin shouted. Luke was shocked to see that there were tears glistening in his eyes. "Why would you hide this from me? Why wouldn't you tell me that I would destroy _everything_ I hold dear? Why didn't you _warn_ me? I don't want to be like that! I don't _want_ to become more of a machine than man, I don't want to be _enslaved_ by the dark side, I don't want to hurt the people I care about, I don't want to become _him_ , I don't want to _die_ him, I don't want this!"

"But it doesn't have to be like this," Luke said suddenly and passionately, throwing them all off guard. "You have a chance to fix this, to keep this nightmare from happening; and the Force gave it to you on a silver platter. Despite everything that's happened, I know there's good in Vader; I've felt it, I've seen it. Anakin Skywalker is still in there...somewhere..." Luke said, rubbing his throat gently. Padme was watching them with a strange look on her face, like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Luke, no one comes back from the dark side; it's a well-known _fact_ ," Obi-Wan said sternly. Luke looked away, meeting Aria's knowing gaze.

"I can't believe that," Luke said softly. "I have to believe that he's still in there, because even though I'm nearly the last Jedi...I can't kill my own _father_..."

"He seemed perfectly ready to kill you," Padme said in a sharp tone. Anakin made a strange, strangled sound and sank to the ground, shaking his head as everything settled in and the weight of what he'd just learned started to dawn on him.

"I'm a Jedi..." he whispered shakily. "I _know_ I'm better than this..."

Anakin pulled his knees up to his chest, resting his arms on top of his knees and burying his face in his arms. Pure silence filled the cockpit as everyone watched Anakin's shoulders start to shake while he cried.

Aria was the first to move. She carefully crossed the distance between herself and Anakin, kneeling beside him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Anakin..." she said softly. He didn't respond, but she didn't take it as a dismissal. Instead, she took it as a signal to keep talking. "I didn't tell you, because I wanted to change all of this without having to burden any of you with the knowledge of what could happen. I knew that it would do this to you, and I didn't want to put you through this...that's why I kept it secret."

Anakin turned his head away from her, his hands clutching his arms a little tighter. Luke felt a strong pang go through Aria at the sight, and she started to gently and comfortingly rub Anakin's back

"I'm so sorry Anakin," she said quietly. "Just...don't give up on me yet. Your fate is _not_ set in stone. There's still plenty of time to fix this; all of this. Don't lose hope."

So they all stayed like that in silence with Aria comforting Anakin on the floor, Padme and Obi-Wan staying welded to their seats, and Luke standing by, watching this young version of his father break down at the revelation of what he could become, all of them digesting everything that had happened, and everything that had yet to be.


	8. Chapter 8: Skywalker Phone Home

_**Ah, well, this is no Chapter 11 of Blood Sweat and Tears, but this baby's still good in my opinion :D There's so much for us in the next chapter mwahahaha**_

 _ **Good luck with this one haha**_

 _ **PLEASE check out my Facebook page, I've been putting all sorts of things on there from videos/trailers, to edited photos, full 600x800 cover photos, update alerts, questions, I answer questions too haha, soundtracks in the notes section of the page...**_

 _ **I even am editing photos to put your shippings (Luke/Aria, Aria/Anakin, Anakin/Zelina, etc) into photo form :D**_

 _ **I'm telling you, it's worth it: AngelDesaray of Fanfiction**_

 _ **PLEASE review guys :D**_

 _ **ENJOOOOY!**_

* * *

Vader stepped carelessly over the Stormtrooper bodies in the hangar—the result of his initial wave of rage resulting from his son escaping literally right from his grasp. Now that he'd taken his rage out on those closest to him, however, his mind was forced to cope with what he had just seen.

Her face pierced through his red haze, causing his step to falter and his breaths to become much more labored. It was impossible; everything he had just seen and heard was impossible...

 _Anakin!_

 _...Padme?_

 _Obi-Wan!_

The girl's three companions...not at all what he'd thought them to be. He'd begun to be suspicious of the fact he'd never seen the woman, but he would never have imagined such a thing as a woman with the face of...voice...name of...of...

He forced himself to think of _her_. After years spent forcing himself to try and forget, he had to dredge the painful memories back to the surface.

 _Ani...I'm pregnant_.

The voice was a flawless match. How many times had he heard that voice speak his name from a whisper, to a declaration of love, to a shout of fear, to a cry of anger, of hurt...

He stopped that direction of thought before it could do much damage, switching his thoughts to her face...flawless, every angle perfect...

What disturbed him, though, was the signature. There wasn't a single, pure wavelength of her Force Signature that was different from his Padme...and as much as he was trying to ignore the thought, the Force was screaming at him just what he was trying to deny.

His wife...his Angel...his Padme.

She was alive. He had just seen her; and oh, the fear that had filled her eyes pained him.

Vader lurched to a halt, barely avoiding sinking to his knees; even if he did, he didn't think he'd care because there was no one here to see him, and if someone did see him he'd just kill him.

Padme had just seen him nearly kill their son; the child that she gifted to him, that she bore to the world most likely on her deathbed. Her fear, however, had not just been for Luke; it had been for the other one, the one that Vader had held at blade point, ready to finish him off even as the Force roared at him not to.

This time he truly did go to his knees as he was hit with the realization that he had almost killed _himself_. How had he not recognized the young Anakin Skywalker? How was this even _possible_? And Kenobi...Kenobi had been there as well, had sent Vader flying through the air in his confusion to distance him from the fleeing party. He'd thought the man looked much like Obi-Wan, but considering he'd killed Obi-Wan himself he hadn't spared that track of thinking a second thought. Now, he considered himself a fool for not realizing sooner, even though right now he was in denial. No, it couldn't be true, it wasn't possible.

 _Yes it is,_ his mind whispered viciously back. _That was the young Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Beings from the past, somehow here in the future. Their presences are just as they should be, the Force confirms it, it is the truth._

Another painful thought washed through Vader; his son was with his younger self, with the idealistic Anakin Skywalker of old, as well as with his mother...with Padme...

Had Luke known?

Something told Vader that yes, at some point, Luke had learned the true identity of his companions.

Vader's mind took another wild turn as he suddenly thought of the girl again, of Aria; who was this _child_? What was she doing with the others? Vader had no recollection of her, no memory of her...

How did she know the things that she knew? What was her part in all of this?

With a growl, Vader forced himself to his feet once more, storming through the halls of the _Executor_ towards the quarters that the five had stayed in the past few days. He knew his thoughts were jumbled, confused, and unclear, but he didn't care.

He wanted answers, and he was going to get them. _When_ he saw one of the five, be it Obi-Wan, his son, Aria, Padme, or Anakin, he wouldn't let them slip away. Not again, not after this. He _would_ have his answers, and _when_ he got his hands on Anakin, he would open his younger self's eyes to the bare truth he had learned the hard way. He would show him the deceit of the Jedi, show him that the true way was through the dark side, the traitorous ways of those he called 'friends,' the uselessness that was the Republic, and he would make sure that this time around...

This time he would get _everything_ that he deserved, with his Angel and his son by his side ruling the Galaxy.

No one would stop them this time.

* * *

Everyone in the shuttle decided to find themselves space, scattering to meditate, rest, or think in different spots. Predictably, Luke found himself in the shuttle's cockpit, watching the blue-blurred stars of hyperspace pass as his mind spun in dizzying circles. Absentmindedly, Luke began to trace the spot where, under fragile synthskin, flesh met metal. Snippets of conversations from the past few days whirred around in his mind at an erratic rate, making his head throb.

 _There are two people that I know the most about in this galaxy; Anakin and you. I know your stories like the back of my hand..._

 _He'd do anything for the people he cares about, anything at all. When Vader found out about you, it re-awoke that part of him. He may do many horrible things, but he would never stand by and let you die..._

 _He just is physically unable to shake himself free from the Emperor. He was going to get rid of Palpatine long ago as soon as your mother's safety was ensured, but before that could happen...well...he ended up in that suit..._

 _He was trying to save Padme. He had a premonition, like you did of Leia, Han, and Chewbacca on Bespin, of Padme dying in childbirth. He didn't even know if the baby would live. He just knew that the last time he had a premonition of someone dying, it happened, and he couldn't let it happen again. Not Padme, and not his unborn child, the only family he had left and the two most important beings in his life..._

 _Anakin joined Palpatine solely to learn the power he'd been told to save Padme, but he lost himself in the process..._

 _...Palpatine told him that he was the one who killed her, and that it was his fault she was dead...and of course he believed you died with her. He's lived with the guilt from that lie for two decades..._

" _You're going to...keep him from falling, aren't you?" "I'm going to try to..."_

 _...it would destroy him if he discovered the truth of what happened..._

 _Why wouldn't you tell me that I would destroy everything I hold dear...I don't want to be enslaved by the dark side, I don't want to hurt the people I care about, I don't want to become him!_

 _Despite everything that's happened, I know there's good in Vader; I've felt it, I've seen it. Anakin Skywalker is still in there...somewhere..._

 _Luke, no one comes back from the dark side; it's a well-known fact._

 _I can't believe that...I have to believe that he's still in there..._

 _Do I really believe that though?_ Luke wondered to himself. The words had just...come out of him in the heat of the moment, and now that the moment was over, Luke found himself searching to know if that was really what he believed. His mind floated towards Anakin's statement earlier.

 _I know I'm better than this..._

So lost was Luke in his musings, that he didn't realize when Aria came into the cockpit. He ran his thumb along the point where he knew that the edge of the synthflesh was, jumping when she cleared her throat. Luke spun around, taking in the sight of her standing hesitantly in the doorway of the cockpit before she gave him a shy smile and he relaxed.

"Hey," she said softly, carefully stepping inside of the cockpit. "Mind if I come in?"

Luke shook his head. "No, not at all," he said, gesturing for her to take a seat next to him in the copilot's chair. Aria graciously took the spot next to him, leaning over and gently touching one of the bruises on his throat.

"How are you feeling?" she asked seriously, her brow furrowed in concern.

"I'll be fine," he assured her, looking down. "It still hurts a little to talk, but other than that it doesn't bother me much."

Aria nodded and pulled her hand away. "I'm glad to hear you're doing better," she said honestly.

Luke nodded in the direction of the passenger hold. "How are they all holding up?"

Aria sighed. "Padme's resting, Obi-Wan's meditating both to calm himself and try and get some answers, and Anakin...has found a secluded corner to be left alone and absorb everything that's happened." At the sad look on Luke's face, Aria moved to assure him. "He's actually taking it much better then I suspected he would; though it is during a point in his life when he's a little calmer."

Luke played around with a thought that had been nagging at the back of his mind for a while now before he decided to voice one of the many things that had been bothering him. "Aria, you said earlier that you _knew_ how Anakin would react; you didn't say you had a general idea, or could guess, you said you _knew_."

Aria gave him a sheepish smile. "There was a point in the Clone Wars...it was a rather strange occurrence, but Obi-Wan and Anakin found three beings amazingly powerful with the Force. One was of the dark side, one of the light, and the third was the balance between them. The one of the dark side, to sway Anakin to his purpose, showed Anakin a vision of everything that he would become and do. Anakin was so devastated, her blindly joined the dark sider to avoid the future that he'd seen, swearing to do whatever it took to keep such a thing from happening. His memory, however, was erased by the Force Wielder that acted as the balance, to restore balance to the Force. So Anakin had no memory of what he'd been shown, and continued on with life."

Luke blinked a few times in surprise, reclining back in the pilot seat and studying her for several moments. "Which reinforced your belief that if telling him could be avoided, it should," Luke said slowly. "What are you going to do now that they all know?"

Aria shrugged. "There's no point in hiding so much anymore. I'll just do what I can to steer them away from that path. I don't have to be as particular about the information I have as I was before, though there are some things I still don't want to come out lest it do some serious damage...like Obi-Wan's part in how Anakin ended up in that suit..."

Luke sat up straight fast, his eyes fixated on her. "What?"

Aria glanced at him and grimaced. "Ah...yes...I almost forgot that part of your family history was...gracefully omitted. It's a long...complicated story I don't quite know how to explain," she muttered. Luke looked away, staring out the viewport for several long moments.

"You said our lives were a holofilm series..." Luke said slowly. Aria looked at him curiously and nodded, signaling Luke to continue. "I was wondering...if you brought them with you for some reason...if I could see them?"

Aria smiled at him, amusement twinkling in her eyes. "I was planning on showing them to you already; I know you want to see what your father was like before...well...everything."

"And I want to know what happened, too," Luke said seriously. He glanced back towards the passenger part of the shuttle again. "I just...I don't see how this happened to him..."

Aria suddenly looked wary again. "I don't know if watching the third one, when he falls...is a good idea—hear me out on this!" she said quickly when Luke moved to protest. He settled down again, and Aria sighed. "I _physically_ could not watch the end of that movie because if hurt too much—and that was _before_ I knew all of this was real, and I'm not even directly affected by it like you are, like Anakin is, like any of you are."

Luke took her words in stride, truly thinking over what she had to say. Before he could comment, however, Aria continued.

"However...if you decide that you really do want to watch all of them...I won't stop you. Just don't say I didn't warn you," she said slowly, catching his eyes to drive her point home. Luke nodded in understanding.

"I get that."

Aria sighed and leaned back. "I'll have to wait until I find a way to charge my laptop though...that's kind of problematic. Can't play the movie if I don't even have a working laptop. I'm going to see if—when he's feeling better—Anakin can rig something up for me."

Most likely deciding that she'd exhausted that conversation track, Aria switched gears. "When should we be arriving at Home One?"

It took Luke a few moments to recover from the initial shock of her knowing without even asking what their destination was, right down to the ship name. This was something that he was going to have to get used to. "Any moment now. I'm hoping they don't shoot us out of the stars thinking we're Imperials before I can explain we're not Imperials."

Aria grimaced. "Yes...not getting blown to smithereens would be nice."

Luke couldn't help but chuckle at that, glancing at her to see her snickering under her breath as well. He sobered, reaching over to place a gentle hand over hers. "Aria," he said seriously, catching her gaze. "I want to thank you for saving me, by the way...again."

Aria blushed, glancing down at his hand momentarily. "It was nothing any decent person wouldn't have done."

Luke smiled a little as, yet again, she tried to downplay what she'd done for him. "That might be so, but I know it took a lot of courage, and for that, I'm grateful."

Aria smiled, and Luke felt his stomach squirm a little. "Anytime."

Their small moment was broken by the warning beep that signaled that they were coming out of hyperspace. Aria took her hand out from under his, turning in her seat to watch as the stars began to take shape again, and they came out of the blue world of hyperspace and came into the dark starry world of real space.

Almost immediately, they were met with laser fire, the shuttle rocking dangerously. Several faint curses and shouts of surprise could be heard from the passenger area, and Aria scrambled out of the copilot chair to sit in the chair behind Luke before the other three appeared. Anakin looked...distant, but he was obviously functional as he immediately took the copilot spot while Obi-Wan moved to the technical station, Padme standing with her hands braced on Obi-Wan's and Aria's chairs.

"Do we fire back?" Anakin asked.

"No!" Luke said sharply with just a note of panic, reaching for the communications system. He punched in the first rebel frequency that popped into mind and spoke in an immediate, rushed tone. "Commander Luke Skywalker to Home One, call off the fighters! Hold your fire!" he shouted tensely as another barrage of fire rained down on the shuttle.

There were a few moments of tense silence before a voice crackled to life from the other end; a familiar voice that Luke welcomed gratefully.

"Luke?" Leia's voice cried. "What are you doing? Where have you been? And why are you in an Imperial shuttle? Are you all right?"

Luke breathed a sigh of relief as the fire ceased, a small smile curling at the corners of his mouth as he replied. "It's a long...long story...I'm just glad to be back."

"I'll meet you in the main hangar!" she said promptly, and the transmission went dark. Luke shook his head, angling the shuttle in the right direction and watching as the two X-Wings broke away to return to the hangar as well.

Behind him, Aria breathed out a shaky sigh of relief. "Glad that's over," she said with a nervous laugh. "Now all we have to do is survive the bombardment."

Luke didn't turn to look at her as he was busy piloting, but he did cock an eyebrow at that statement. "Bombardment?" he asked simply, his confusion clear.

"Yes, well, Mothma knew—knows, not sure how to put that—Padme on a personal level and will recognize her immediately, Anakin went on a mission—only one that I'm aware of, but that's enough—with Ackbar, and Mothma actually knows Anakin and Obi-Wan rather well too, so she'll recognize them; I believe Padme was on that mission with Anakin that involved Ackbar too, so there's that one as well. Also, I believe Padme was sort of a political role model for Leia, so you can bet that Leia will recognize her. All around, there's gonna be a lot of people going 'Wait a second,' and looking twice and asking a thousand and one questions."

Luke blinked. "Okay...so they're well known here...this should be fun."

Aria snorted. "Yes, quite. Especially for those that were—are—close acquaintances with them and have thought them dead for," she paused for a moment, probably figuring the numbers. "As long as you've been alive for Padme and Anakin, and...two-ish years for Obi-Wan."

"Wait, what?" Obi-Wan and Anakin both asked, turning to look at her.

"Another time, another time," Aria said with an impatient wave of her hand.

"Oh, so now deaths can wait for another time too?" Anakin asked sharply. Luke shot him a glance.

"I don't think you need that kind of information dropped on you when we're about to be meeting a bunch of people who will recognize you instantly. I agree with Aria; that can wait for another time. Let's deal with one information dump at a time."

"You said Mothma—as in _Mon_ Mothma?" Padme asked from her spot between Obi-Wan and Aria.

"Yes, the very same," Aria replied as Luke guided them smoothly into the hangar and started to land. He could sense the worry and anticipation thick in the air of the hangar, mostly from Leia. At the thought of the brown haired princess, Luke suddenly wanted nothing more than to be down there to comfort her; he knew that she must be worried sick about him, and that thought bothered him. Slowly, he set the ship down, with both Luke and Anakin starting the power down. As soon as Luke was done, he stood up from his seat and turned to leave the cockpit. Padme stepped out of the way just in time as he hurried past her and down the lowered ramp, hardly even noticing that the entire group was right behind him.

The moment his head cleared the bottom of the ramp and came into view, He was met with a rush of brown and white and a cry of, "Luke!" before Leia plowed right into her, throwing her arms around his neck. Luke couldn't help the cry of pain that slipped out of his lips.

"Easy Leia, easy with me," he told her, his voice strained as she pulled back to see what was wrong. Her face morphed into a look of hardened anger as well as gentle concern. She gently grasped his chin, tilting his head up to assess the damage.

"Luke, what happened?" Leia asked seriously. Luke hesitated before he gave her a brief but honest answer.

"Xizor and Vader, among other things," he said seriously. Leia took in his tattered clothes and the faded scars that remained from his torture, and horror morphed her features.

"Luke, what did they do to you?" Leia asked. Thankfully, it was a rhetorical question; Luke still flinched.

"Don't worry about it Leia, I'm fine," Luke told her in soothing tones, running his hands down her arms in comfort. "I had help," Luke said, turning to the four who had disembarked from the shuttle behind him and were currently watching with varying forms of curiosity, other than Aria; she seemed to understand exactly what was going on.

"And who..." Leia started to say, trailing off when she saw the hesitant look on Luke's face. Luke debated for a moment before he led Leia over to the group, holding a hand out towards Aria.

"Leia, this is Aria Neads. She saved my life twice," he said gently. Aria blushed, but held a hand out to Leia.

"Pleased to meet you Princess," Aria said politely, shaking Leia's hand in a firm grip. Leia's politician mask was only partially in place to hide her confusion while the rest of her expression was filled with gratitude.

"Thank you Aria; I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me that you saved him...though I have no clue how," Leia said with a small smile. Her attention shifted to the other three and both Luke and Aria hesitated, glancing at them.

"Should we just...?" Aria asked in silent question. It wasn't hard for Luke to figure out what she was talking about.

"If they're going to be recognized anyway," Luke said with a shrug. Leia looked between them, looking completely confused, so Luke decided to try and break the news to her gently. "Leia...these other three are people that I want you to meet, and no matter how unbelievable it may seem, you have to believe that I'm telling the truth," he said firmly, holding her eyes. Leia cocked an eyebrow at Luke, but nodded in compliance.

Luke met the three's eyes and mentally braced himself for Leia's reaction. "Leia; I'd like you to meet Padme Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and...Anakin Skywalker," he said, with each of them inclining their heads respectively as they were introduced.

Leia stared at the three in shock, while Luke stood in increasing worry beside her, monitoring her reactions closely. When she still hadn't said anything for several long moments, Luke gently grasped her arm. "Leia..."

Leia blinked at him. "Luke, that's impossible," she said in a strange and distant tone. "All of them...they're dead. You...you saw Obi-Wan die yourself..."

Luke saw sharp eyes turn on Aria at Leia's words, but he ignored their reaction. Leia was his main focus now. "I know Leia, trust me, I know; but they really are. They're not from this time, they're from the past; Leia, listen to me."

Leia pulled away from Luke, backing up with a fearful look. "Luke, you're starting to scare me." Luke pulled away with a wounded look. Before anything could be said or done, however, a frightened voice suddenly echoed across the hangar.

" _Padme?_ "

The rest of Alliance High Command had arrived.

Padme turned at the sound of what was apparently a familiar voice to her, shock filling her features as she took in the woman leaning into Dodonna with a sudden swoon.

"Mon?" Padme replied in equal surprise.

Mon Mothma promptly fainted.

* * *

Darth Vader didn't have to look far for a clue.

He didn't like that; it seemed too easy. Perhaps it was meant to be; perhaps the girl—as Vader could only assume she was the one who did it as he'd found his clue on her bed—had meant to leave it behind for him.

That didn't ease his suspicions though.

Now, he took in the words scrawled in a well-paced script of aurebesh, like the writer had been trying desperately to get the characters right—like the script had been unnatural for them.

Those words scrawled across the top did nothing to ease his suspicion.

 **Lord Vader: I hope that these papers, once you decode them (That's what the last page is for), will give you answers. Granted, I'm sure it won't be the answers you're currently seeking, but answers nonetheless. You should also know that I meant it when I said that we are not your enemies; however, you're not the only Skywalker (even if you say Anakin is dead) that I'm trying to look out for. Unfortunately, sometimes interests are going to conflict, as I'm sure we all know by now...I'll be sure Luke learns the truth of what happened all those years ago, and doesn't fall into any danger—he couldn't be in safer hands. Aria Neads.**

Vader growled, seeing red. The girl thought...she had the audacity to think...

Several pieces of furniture in the room became twisted balls of unrecognizable metal. Who did this _child_ think she was? How dare she—how _dare_ she!

For a moment, Vader almost ripped the papers into shreds, but something stopped him. Some small whisper prompted him to just at least translate the first sentence; just to get an idea of what this so called information was that she wanted to share.

With a growl, Vader snatched up the translation paper, noting how under each letter of the aurebesh there was a small character inscribed in two different forms; a large form and a smaller form. Vader picked up the first page of the papers, and started to translate the words on the page.

In the few seconds he translated the first word, his attention was caught, and he stood in complete, silent, still concentration.

Padme.

Padme was the first word.

Hastily, Vader pressed forward with his translation.

 _Padme didn't die..._

His breathing hitched, until he continued.

 _...from childbirth..._

His heart clenched as the Force hummed with the truth of what he was reading and he read a little further. How could this be so? His vision...

... _Palpatine killed her..._

Vader froze. The silence was suddenly deafening as his mind went blank, those three words circling in his mind.

 _Palpatine killed her._

 _Palpatine killed her._

 _Palpatine..._

He forced himself to finish the sentence as he trembled from rage, cracks starting to spider web across the viewport and the remains of the furniture groaning, snapping, breaking...

 _...so that you would be completely at his mercy and consumed by the dark side; he never intended on saving her, he was going to make sure she died from the very start so you'd be bound solely to him._

The room around Vader—and several rooms down—exploded from Vader's rage, killing anyone nearby slowly and painfully as he let loose a howl of fury that rivaled that of when he'd discovered Padme had died.

It was true. It was all true.

The Force _mercilessly_ told him so.

Now he wanted Palpatine's blood.

The serpent would _die_ for crossing him so, for _murdering_ his Angel.

He would make sure the fool's death was a long and painful one.

 _Palpatine_ would beg _him_ for death once Vader was through with him.

But not yet...no...no, right now...he would see what other answers this girl had provided him with. Then...he would begin to plot Palpatine's _eminent_ demise.


	9. Chapter 9: 20 Questions

_**I cannot begin to explain how sorry I am that this chapter took sooooo long, I was struggling with writers block the entire time, trudging through this chapter a little at a time. I swear to you I wrote every day!**_

 _ **AAAAnnnndddd I have more bad news: i'm only going to have my laptop...five days in the next two weeks, so my updates are gonna be scarce before they go back to my regular posting rate again...sorry, traveling, camping, etc. I'll be jotting down whatever ideas come to mind in a notebook though, so technically I will still be making progress!**_

 _ **PLEASE go and like my Facebook page if you haven't yet, I've been putting all sorts of goodies up on there, including pictures of your shippings ;) both Luke/Aria, and Anakin/Aria :D I even warn you when I'm struggling or my posting is delayed on there. please? Go like it? AngelDesaray of Fanfiction**_

 _ **please review, if its choppy or something doesn't make much sense, tell me, I'll go back to fix it, like i said this chapter was written over the past week or so, so it might be a little disjointed.**_

 _ **ENJOY!**_

* * *

They tried to shoo Luke off to the medical bay, and Luke predictably refused, stating all he had was the bruises and he would be fine. Once Mon Mothma was brought back around to consciousness, the entire group—Alliance High Command, Jedi, Senator, and Earthling visitor alike—were all hurried into the nearest conference room. The entire time on their way there, Aria wore a grimace. Explaining the time and space travel to Jedi and an open minded Senator that had spent most of the past few weeks learning about Jedi and had been transported to her world was one thing. Explaining the time and space travel to a group of politicians whose extent of exposure to the Jedi alone was mostly just Luke was another thing entirely.

As everyone took a seat around the table, the Alliance High Command sat on one side while on the other side the Prequel Trio sat all together, and Aria sat in between Luke and Anakin; she felt safe sitting there.

Mon Mothma was in the middle, hands folded over each other as she simply stared at the trio in front of her in open shock, though she mostly stared at Padme. The poor young woman—it had to be strange for her to sit at this table under an older-version of one of her best friend's close gaze. When everyone else settled down, Mothma finally managed to find her voice.

"Padme...how...how is this possible? You _died_ ; I was at your funeral! I didn't believe that you'd been murdered, but you, alive, now!" Mothma breathed in shock.

Leia chose that moment to intervene while Padme stared at Mothma in obvious shock. "Mon, you're not really saying that they are who they say they are—two of us in this room were there when Jedi Master Kenobi was killed."

Now it was Obi-Wan's turn to be uncomfortable, and Aria saw Anakin glancing worriedly at his two companions. She was going to have a lot of explaining to do once they got out of this meeting.

"Yes, I'd know Padme anywhere," Mothma said, her gaze momentarily tearing away from Padme to run over the two Jedi. "Of course Master Kenobi...and Master Skywalker...but I don't understand how you're all so young...it's been _decades_..."

"That's because Leia's not wrong—they have died," Aria finally said, her voice coming out very quiet as she felt intimidated under the full attention of the Alliance High Command. "Obi-Wan did die onboard the Death Star, Padme did die when the Republic became the Galactic Empire, so on and so forth, but...at the same time, they really are who they say they are."

Leia frowned. "But if they died, how's that possible?"

"Because they're not from this time," Luke chipped in, his gaze roaming over the entire group. "Through the Force, they were brought back from...what year was it?" Luke said, turning to Aria to ask his question.

"Twenty-two BBY," Aria said promptly.

Mothma stared at Padme. "That's the year the Clone Wars started."

"It hasn't started yet; Master Kenobi just arrived on Geonosis," Aria told her.

"I'm sorry," said one of the other High Command members, "but I just can't believe any of this."

"Would I lie, General?" Luke asked with a raised eyebrow. "I know it may seem far-fetched, but it's the truth nonetheless."

"It's just not possible."

"Well then how do you explain the three sitting in front of us General Madine?" Mothma asked evenly. "Besides, I trust Commander Skywalker's Jedi insight."

"Mothma, this is stretching it a little far," Madine said seriously.

"But it's true," Luke said fervently, a hard edge appearing in his eyes.

"Look," Anakin said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "As much as I love hearing everyone bicker over whether or not I am who I say I am—that any of us are who we say we are—it's just a waste of time."

Anakin's words sparked an idea in Aria's mind, and she grinned, cutting Anakin off before he could do something stupid. "If you're so certain, then you wouldn't mind if they did a DNA test? I mean, that should be nice, hard, scientific evidence for you General," Aria said pointedly, ignoring the stares she was getting from everyone in the room as she held Madine's gaze. It took quite some effort to summon up the courage to keep eye contact and a steady voice, but she still managed.

"DNA test on who?" one of the generals asked. Aria cocked an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she asked dryly, unable to help her scathing tone of voice. It wasn't exactly rocket science.

"Anakin Skywalker was Luke's father," Mothma told the other man softly before she straightened up. "Consider it done. We'll have Too-Onebee test them; if they're a match, then these three are truly the heroes of the past Republic, plucked right out of time itself."

Anakin was staring at Aria—he'd been staring at her since Mothma had said Anakin was Luke's father; it was the first time that information had been said straight out. Apparently, that part hadn't sunk in yet. While they waited for the medical droid to arrive, Aria glanced at him, meeting his gaze with the same 'seriously?' expression she'd given the man who'd asked why the DNA test.

"Did that part fly over your head during everything else?" she asked incredulously.

"Forgive me for only being able to take in so much at a time," Anakin replied scathingly. Aria blushed, feeling a flicker of hurt.

"Sorry...that was insensitive of me..." Aria mumbled in reply. She could feel Luke's gaze on her as she spoke, and she glanced away from Anakin. Anakin sighed.

"I'm sorry, I'm just..."

"Wound up? On edge? Considering, It's understandable," Aria replied, her voice even once more and the hurt she'd felt a few seconds ago gone once more.

General Madine leaned forward. "We know who they claim to be; what about you?" he asked her. Aria shrugged.

"I'm just a nobody who knows far more than she should," she said honestly. All four of her companions frowned at her.

"I beg to differ," Obi-Wan said.

"You might not be from the past, like us, but you've played a key role in everything so far," Padme pointed out. "Not to mention while we were in that detention center and on that flagship, you were the one who played them all so that we flew by unnoticed and unscathed...for the most part. At least you kept as all from getting killed."

"Wait, detention center? Flagship? Luke," Leia echoed, turning to Luke. "What happened?"

Luke sighed, folding his hands over each other on the table. "While I was scouting the area, I was up in a tree, getting a feel for the defenses. That was when they appeared out of nowhere, and it startled me out of the tree and drew the Stormtroopers' attention. We were all captured and they recognized me so I was brought into...interrogation. Since Prince Xizor is in charge of the prison, he ordered the wounds that I received during the interrogation not to be treated, and that I be left for dead. Since these four didn't show up on their rebel activity database, they didn't go through interrogation."

"If they left you for dead, then how are you here and virtually unharmed?" Madine asked.

Luke hesitated, glancing at Aria. "Aria came up with...an idea...to get me immediate medical attention. I thought she was crazy but...she was right, and it worked perfectly."

"What was her idea?" Leia asked, a little annoyed that Luke was dancing around the edge of the question.

"She suggested that I call out to Vader through the Force."

"What?" Leia shouted, jumping to her feet and startling Aria enough that Aria jumped. Aria was quick to defend herself.

"Vader wants him alive—not dead, not horribly injured, _alive_ and healthy. Xizor ordered Luke to be left for dead to get at Vader; if Vader knew what was going on, he'd arrive personally to make sure the target of his obsession remained alive," Aria said pointedly. Luke jumped in before anyone could verbally attack her, mainly Leia.

"She was right; Vader arrived just in time to have me revived and put me under immediate, intense care of the best available, and moved me out of that prison so that no one else could try to take my life," Luke pointed out.

"Revived?" Leia sputtered in shock. Luke nodded.

"Technically...I did die for a short time. If Aria hadn't talked me into reaching out to Vader, I wouldn't be here right now. It was an insane option, but it was the only option if I was going to live," Luke said solemnly as Leia sank back into her seat. "She was even able to convince Vader and Admiral Piett _and_ the doctor supervising me to allow her to stay by me the entire time, which I like to think prevented a few attempts at unfair treatment or attempts on my life. Furthermore, she somehow got Vader to allow her and the other three to accompany me onto Vader's flagship, where she helped nurse me back to health. She was able to hide Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padme's identities from Vader the entire time we were on the Executor, _and_ she was the one who came up with the escape plan. Lastly, when Vader nearly killed me during the escape, she was the one who distracted him and saved my life again...and Anakin saved both our lives when Vader might have killed us," Luke finally finished, tacking the last part on softly. By the time he finished his explanation, Aria was blushing furiously.

"Yes, well, Luke was the one who saved Anakin and Obi-Wan when Vader discovered they were Jedi, and saved my life as well," Aria said, trying hard to not end up with so much of the credit. "He was also the one who did the insane piloting that got us out of that mess."

"Well, no matter how this test turns out, we're in debt to you for the service you've done the Alliance. Since Luke is the last of the Jedi, it would hurt us quite a bit if we were to lose him," Mon said seriously. Luke shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but didn't say a word. Just after she spoke, Too-Onebee finally walked through the door, a human medic toting the necessary equipment with him. His robot eyes seemed to zero in on Luke, and he made a very droid-like sound of exasperation.

"What did you do now, Commander Skywalker?" he asked as he marched right up to Luke. "Please don't tell me I'll have to replace another limb—Are you going to need another bacta treatment?"

Luke blushed a deep red. "No, no, I'm fine, I've already been treated for my injuries—"

"The bruising around your neck and the still-healing scar tissue that shows signs of extensive, unnatural torture even for the Imperials I can detect suggest otherwise."

"Seriously, I'm fine—"

"Onebee, we need you to do a paternal DNA test," Leia interrupted. "That's all we need."

"Oh...okay then. A paternity test with who?" Onebee asked.

"Between Commander Skywalker and the man on the other side of Aria," Leia said, pointing them each out in turn. Onebee paused.

"But Princess, my calculations show that they are too close in age—"

"Just perform the test Onebee!" Leia said in exasperation.

"Very well," Onebee said with an artificial sigh. "Your hand, sir?"

Anakin offered his hand wordlessly, and one quick prick later Onebee was moving towards Luke. Luke offered his right hand on instinct.

"Sir, I can't—" Onebee started to say, but Luke shook his head and switched hands.

"Sorry Onebee; force of habit," Luke apologized as the droid took a blood sample from him as well. Onebee tottered off to run the tests. No one said a word as the two Skywalkers' DNA was compared to each other, though several shy, curious, suspicious, impatient, or apologetic glances were shared. Finally, Onebee trotted back over to the group.

"I do not understand," the droid said in apparent confusion. "They are around the same age, and this man is younger than Commander Skywalker, but the test shows that Commander Skywalker is indeed the son of this man; it's not logical. It is physically impossible! It—"

As Onebee continued to ramble, several people slumped back in their chairs in shock, staring across the table at the three who were now open to their disbelieving scrutiny.

Leia was the first to react, and she turned her attention right to Luke, the apology clear on her face. "Luke, I'm sorry I didn't believe you..."

"It's fine, I wouldn't believe me either," Luke said with ease and a wave of his hand.

Mothma leaned forward, hands folded over each other. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions."

Anakin immediately glanced at Aria, though Obi-Wan and Padme were able to keep their individual masks of calm on. "Actually, I don't think you can give us the answers that we need Mon," Padme said gently. "At the same time, we know right where to look to get those answers; but thank you for the offer."

Mothma seemed surprised. "You don't have any questions about the Empire? How it came to be, how the Senate fell, what happened to the Jedi...none of that?"

"Right now we've had a...rather large amount of information dumped on us, _and_ we've received the shortened form of the basics so we can get by," Padme said, glancing at Aria as she spoke. "If we have any questions we know who to ask."

"Are you sure?" Mothma asked again, catching Padme's eye. Padme gave her a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure all any of us want to do right now is get some much needed rest and...clear some of the air between us," Padme said easily. Anakin stiffened just slightly in his seat next to Aria, and she pretended that she didn't notice.

"Well then...We'll set you up with someplace to stay," Mothma said with an easy smile. Luke shifted in his seat before he spoke up.

"You wouldn't mind if they stayed close to my quarters, right? In the general area, at least?" Luke asked. Several of the Alliance Command gave him strange looks, so Aria jumped in.

"Yes, that would be nice, not to mention convenient," she said quickly. "It's just...someone familiar that knows the place well, and obviously there's plenty that just Luke and Anakin have to talk about."

"We'll...see what we can do," Mothma said, studying Aria for the first time. "What is your name again?"

"Aria, Ma'am. Aria Neads."

Mothma's brow furrowed slightly. "How old are you?"

Aria felt heat start to rise to her cheeks, flushing slightly. "I'm, ah, turning seventeen soon."

Surprise flickered across several faces in the room except for the Prequel Trio that had already known this. Even Luke was surprised, as that had never come up in their conversations.

"Sixteen? You act...much older than that young lady; especially with everything you've done since you've got here," Mothma said in surprise. Aria felt her walls start to rise instantly as she shoved waves of years' worth of pain down with force. She was sure the Jedi in the room could feel it, Luke included.

"Life tends to do that to you," Aria said, her voice coming out a little forced, as well as her smile. "I've been told I was an old-soul a lot. Always got along better with people older than me than people my age."

"The people your age where you lived weren't that great of people either," Anakin said, giving her a pointed look. Aria shrugged, keeping her attention on the Alliance High Command members and letting the subject drop.

Mothma frowned. "Is there a parent that we need to get in contact with?"

Aria stiffened at the question, and beside her Luke stiffened as well at her sudden and complete change of demeanor. It had obviously been unexpected, and she had the vague sense that he might have also felt the swift change full force through the Force.

"No, there's not," Aria said, her voice soft but also somewhat sharp to show that the topic was closed and warned not to dig deeper.

"Well then," Mothma finally said. "I guess we should let you all rest; it sounds like it's been a rough few days for your group."

One by one, everyone started to rise from their seats around the table. "I know that the room next to me doesn't have anyone inside of it," Luke said as he rose from his seat. "Two can settle down in there, maybe three if someone's willing to sleep on the floor, and there's room for one more in my room."

Mothma glanced at the four. "It will be a tight fit, but I guess it will have to do until other arrangements can be made." She skimmed her eyes over the group one more time before she nodded. "You can go now; Luke will show you the way to the apartments you can stay in. We'll try to get a larger space for all of you as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Mon," Padme said graciously, inclining her head in gratitude before everyone started to file out the door. Aria, Luke, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme all gathered together outside in the hall, and Aria didn't miss the fact that almost every eye of her group was upon her even though Luke was the one that was going to be showing them where they would all stay. Luke took up point, and started to lead them through the maze of the ship that was _Home One_.

"Are we going to keep the same roommate arrangements that we had on the Executor?" Aria asked, simply to break the silence. They did need to know who was going to be staying where, and Aria needed something to be said instead of this constant silence that was driving her to madness.

"Sure, if you want," Luke said, though she noticed the tips of his ears flush a little red, and suddenly had the suspicion that he was just as messy as his father. Aria smirked a little behind him.

"Don't worry if your place is messy, I'm rather messy myself," she assured him. Obi-Wan snorted.

"Messy is an understatement. You cleaned your room one day and an hour later it was trashed again," Obi-Wan pointed out. Aria chuckled.

"That's what happens when I clean; I lose things and I no longer know where anything is, so I end up tearing apart the room trying to find it," Aria replied defensively. She shook her head with a sigh, turning towards Luke once again. "Luke, is there anywhere all of us can talk privately where we won't be all crammed into one little room? I do owe them an explanation, and I'm sure you _still_ have plenty of questions."

Luke chewed on his bottom lip for a few moments before he nodded. "Yeah, I have somewhere in mind. After I show you where our rooms are—you can drop off your backpack in my room—then we can head to one of the ship's gardens. It's a nice quiet place to talk and not be disturbed."

Aria nodded. "I can do that."

* * *

Aria had been right; Luke was messy. She didn't mind though, because she was just as messy herself. After plopping the backpack down on the bottom bunk—Luke apparently liked the top bunk—Luke led them to another part of the ship and deep into a beautiful garden that was even complete with a little waterfall. Unable to help herself, Aria went over to the pool of water that the waterfall cascaded into, took off her shoes, and dipped her feet into the water. She sighed, relaxing considerably even as everyone gathered around her expectantly.

"So..." Anakin said, fixing her with a hard stare. "I believe you owe us some explanations."

Aria sighed. "Look, I'm sorry you had to find out like that—"

"It shouldn't have been like that at all!" Anakin snapped. "It wasn't something you should have kept from us! How hard would it have been to mention it, to warn us? Force, I was asking all these questions about Darth Vader, and you knew, you _knew_ he was me!"

"I wanted to avoid what happened without burdening you with the knowledge of what you could become," Aria said patiently, feeling suddenly very small.

"That book I found that you took and read, that article—" Anakin suddenly stopped staring at her. His eyes narrowed and he suddenly had a pained expression on his face. "That _article_...Vader's wife... _pregnant_...killed..." his voice choked off and he stared into the water, fighting the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. Aria put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I was hoping that...should the worst still come...you would remember that article and backtrack before it could happen," Aria said softly. "I had a general idea of how hard this kind of revelation would be on you and I wanted to keep you from experiencing that kind of pain...that kind of went down the drain when we showed up in this time. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it secret for long."

Obi-Wan looked rather uncomfortable and upset at the moment. "I've missed out on a lot apparently; you didn't share this information with me. Married? Pregnant?" he said incredulously, staring at Aria in open shock. "It's against the Jedi Code! Jedi are not allowed to have attachments, let alone be married and have children—"

"But it's the best thing that happened to this galaxy," Aria said sharply, suddenly standing up and moving in front of Anakin and Padme. "It might have ended tragically, yet, but their relationship, the love they shared—share—is not the problem. The problem is Sidious; he's the one who backed Anakin into a corner and played him for thirteen long years, he's the one who deceived Anakin, isolated him from everyone that he trusted and cared about, and made believe that Sidious' way was the only way. What they shared is not to blame, and despite what the Jedi Council may say or think, it was love—the very concept of the attachment of family that the Council insists is bad and needs to be severed so it can't be used against a Jedi—that brought Vader back to the light in the first place."

Four sets of eyes were fixated on Aria after her outburst. Luke was staring at her like he was afraid to hope. "Brought Vader _back_?" Luke ventured hesitantly. Aria turned to face him, locking gazes with Luke before she met every pair of eyes and then came back to Luke once more.

"Yes," Aria said quietly, casting her gaze to the waterfall and shoving her hands deep in her pockets. "The love he had for his son was stronger in the end than anything else the darkness and the Emperor had to keep its hold on him. And in the end...Vader was willing to give his life to save his son's."

There was silence for several very long moments, the air dripping with disbelief and shock, as well as several other deep, roiling emotions. Obi-Wan was reeling. "But...no one..."

Aria was already shaking her head. "Vader's not the first. The Council has conveniently forgotten of cases like Revan where beings turned from the dark side of the Force. Vader's not the first time it happened, and it won't be the last. In almost every case I've noticed that the one thing the Council has decided to cut out—the attachments, or as I like to say, the bonds of both family and friends—has been the source that called them to the light."

Luke approached her slowly. "You're saying that at some point in my future, Vader is going to sacrifice himself so that I can live?" he asked, his voice a hushed whisper. Aria was finding it hard to look in anyone's eyes, knowing this all had to be an emotional rollercoaster for them.

"That's what happened originally, yes," Aria replied, forcing herself to hold his gaze no matter how hard it was. "Still, with all the changes we've made already...who knows what's going to happen now?"

Aria sat back, letting them all process what they already knew and come up with their own questions. It was Padme who spoke, and she hesitantly approached Luke. "So...you're our son?" Padme asked in a quiet voice, studying Luke closely as she spoke. Luke turned his gaze on her, holding back the tears from the emotions that had nearly choked off his ability to breathe. Since he couldn't find it in himself to speak, he simply nodded, standing straighter under his mother's and father's gaze. "How...how old are you?" Padme asked, her gaze roving over Luke's features, probably picking out the things he'd inherited from Anakin and her.

"Twenty-two," Luke told her, his voice shaking just slightly. "I'm twenty-two...I'll be twenty-three soon."

"Well..." Padme said, sounding a little breathless as she processed the fact she was standing in front of her adult son. "You definitely have his looks, and his bravery," Padme said, glancing at Anakin as a light pink flush graced her cheeks.

Anakin glanced at her, then at Luke. "Yes, but he definitely has your heart," he said softly, blushing and looking away. It had to be awkward for them; as far as Aria was aware, they hadn't even had their first kiss yet. Maybe they had amid all that talk over whether or not they would avoid pursuing a relationship. Anakin had said that they had both decided to risk it...were they in a relationship right now?

Obi-Wan turned to Aria. "How come we're known so well? Why are our names so recognizable?" he asked seriously.

"Well...Padme was very out-spoken in the senate during the war, and she not only uncovered several conspiracies but continued to stand for the people's rights and called for peace efforts time and time again, which was a big thing at the time. Anakin and you, on the other hand, sort of became the poster-boys for the war effort; the dynamic duo, always at the front it seemed and almost always successful. The media even gave you titles; Anakin was known as the Hero With No Fear or the Warrior of the Infinate, while you were known as the Negotiator. You two made quite the reputation for yourselves; there wasn't a Separatist General—possibly even commander—who _hadn't_ heard of you two. There was even a time when you two were complimenting each other like crazy trying to pass off all the publicity from your recent mission. Obi-Wan won that one; he went to give the report to the Council while Anakin mingled with the press and Senators," Aria said with a smirk.

"The Princess mentioned something about a Death Star?" Anakin asked, cocking an eyebrow. Obi-Wan shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes, I'd like to know about that as well since I'm supposed to have died there."

Luke winced and looked away. Anakin noticed.

"You were there," Anakin stated. It wasn't a question. Anakin looked back up at Aria. "That's why the name you gave Obi-Wan to use was Ben; Obi-Wan is the Ben Luke knew."

"Knows," Luke corrected. Three pairs of eyes immediately riveted on him.

"Knows? They said I died," Obi-Wan said, his brow furrowed.

"You did," Luke said quietly. "But that doesn't mean you're not still around."

There were a few moments of silence before Anakin finally spoke up. "That makes no sense."

"His Force Ghost," Aria said simply. "You saw that clip; Obi-Wan's still hanging around through the Force. He'll show up every now and then to offer guidance or words of wisdom."

"Backing up..." Anakin said slowly. "The Death Star."

"Right..." Aria said. "It was a battle station built by the Empire the size of a moon with the capabilities to destroy an entire planet."

"Impossible," Padme said, eyes wide with horror.

"No, it's not," Aria said gently. "It destroyed Alderaan."

"Alderaan? But it-it's a peaceful planet! I know the Organas myself, how..." Padme said weekly, leaning into Anakin for support. Luke's head had snapped up at 'Organas.'

"You knew—know—Leia's family?" he asked in surprise. It was his parents' and mentor's turn to be surprised now.

"She's an Organa?" Padme asked. "Bail's daughter?"

"Yes, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan; you know her parents?" Luke repeated.

"Yes I'm...very good friends with Bail and Breha...they were on Alderaan, weren't they? When it happened..." Padme said softly.

"They were," Aria confirmed, avoiding her gaze.

"Tell me that thing is no longer operational," Anakin said fiercely, still supporting Padme.

"It won't terrorize the galaxy ever again; I'm the one who destroyed it," Luke said firmly. Aria nodded, shoving the trickle of unease that rose up inside her when she thought of how she knew of a second Death Star under construction. On thing at a time though...she'd bring up the Second Death Star another time.

"Leia was being held prisoner on board the Death Star, and when Luke, Han, Chewie, and Obi-Wan were pulled in by the tractor beam they slipped aboard. While Obi-Wan was disabling the tractor beam, Luke, Han, and Chewie went to rescue Leia. Obi-Wan...was killed holding off Darth Vader while the others made their escape," Aria said, finishing quietly. "Vader tracked the _Millennium Falcon_ and Grand Moff Tarkin brought the Death Star to destroy Yavin, where the Rebel Base was. Luke fired the two torpedoes into the exhaust port that caused the Death Star to explode when it tried to fire on Yavin. That's what BBY and ABY stands for by the way; Before the Battle of Yavin, and After the Battle of Yavin. It's about three ABY now, nearing four ABY."

Anakin had paled upon hearing that he'd been the one to kill Obi-Wan, and suddenly he was the one in need of support. "I...I think that's enough for today..." he said weakly. He looked a little green. Aria gave him a sad, sympathetic look.

"Understandable. We should all head back and get some rest. If you have any questions...all you have to do is ask, now," Aria said. She hesitated for a moment before she spoke up. "By the way...Anakin...if you want a project to take your mind off of everything, I need something to charge my laptop with."

Anakin nodded. "Yeah, I can...I can get to that...I can do that."

Aria inclined her head slightly. "Thank you." She turned her attention back to Luke. "Well...should we head back?"

Luke nodded, moving to the front of the group. "Yes, right, I'll lead us back..."

* * *

Luke was trying—and, Aria had to admit, failing—to clean up the mess in his room as quickly as possible, mumbling out apologies as he relocated all sorts of objects ranging from fragments of machines he'd apparently pulled apart to clothes he'd just left lying around. Aria tried to hide her smile while she stayed on the bed, her backpack at her feet.

"Luke, it's fine, this is cleaner than my room," she said with a laugh, unable to help herself anymore. Luke gave her a slightly shy smile, shoving a datapad in his desk drawer.

"I can't help it, I mean, the place is a mess, I wasn't expecting to have any visitors, least of all a guest that would be staying for however long," Luke said, rushing into one of his many apologies.

Aria rolled her eyes, leaning down to pull her laptop out of her backpack. "Why don't you take a break from the madness; I've got enough battery life I can show you the first movie like I promised."

That got Luke's attention. He stopped, watching her as she pulled out her Star Wars box set and powered up her laptop. He came over to sit beside her, picking up the box set and running his hand over the cover. "So...this is it?" he whispered, staring transfixed at the picture on the cover of Tatooine and both Luke and Anakin; one facing away from the suns at nine, the other facing the suns at nineteen.

"Yup. Three movies each. For you, five of them have happened. For your father...only one-and-a-half."

"What's the sixth one?" he asked as he slid the book that held the CD's out of the case.

"The last movie of your story, obviously...Star Wars Episode Six: Return of the Jedi," Aria said with a wide smile, watching him closely. He blinked a few times, staring right back.

"Well...that title raises a few...a few questions of my own," Luke said, smiling and laughing a little bit in between words.

"Yes well...as we're not sure if that will still happen...let's leave those questions unanswered. You don't have long before the events of Episode Six; maybe a few months...possibly less if our presence happens to speed things along."

"Wow that's...that's not very long..." Luke murmured, flipping open the book to the first page where The Phantom Menace was. He studied the red and black tattooed figure painted onto the page, a small frown tugging at the corners of his lips. "Who's this?"

Aria reached over and pulled the disc out of the slot, placing it carefully into her laptop. "You'll just have to wait and see; spoiler alert, he's not a good guy."

Luke's eyebrows raised a little at that, but he allowed Aria to scoot closer and set the laptop on their laps; half of it on one of Aria's leg and the other half on Luke's leg. They leaned their backs against the wall, Luke lowered the lights with some concentration through the Force, and Aria started the movie.

* * *

Darth Vader had not come out of his room for a long time. Even longer still, he'd stayed locked in his meditation chamber with four specific pieces of paper. So long had he read the papers over that he was now fluent in this strange written form of Basic.

This girl—Aria—had laid before him the lies of Sidious. How he'd manipulated him all this time...Padme's death...how Sidious planned to have Luke kill and replace Vader...how everything that made Luke who he is went against the dark side, and turning Luke would destroy him; he would no longer be Luke, no longer be his son, no longer be _Padme's_ son. She'd gone on to explain how Padme had not known that Obi-Wan had been aboard her ship; how Obi-Wan had snuck onto the ship and how previously he had begged Yoda not to send Obi-Wan after Anakin. Padme's last words?

' _There is good in him. I know; I know there is...still...'_

This girl...how did she know so much? How was any of this possible? He still had no idea just what part she was playing. She had all this information, but what she planned to do with it he still had yet to discover. Protect Luke, she'd already said and demonstrated. What she was doing with Vader's past self, he still had yet to figure out; did she want to change the past? If so, how?

 _You're not the only Skywalker that I'm trying to look out for._

Just whose side was she on?

 _I align myself with people, not flags._

Could she be on no one's side but, perhaps...just the Skywalkers? If that was what she was thinking, then she was going to find that rather difficult with each of them on a different side. She'd have to choose a side eventually, and something told Vader that she would chose his son's side.

Still, the question remained; just what was Aria Neads doing, and what was she planning?


	10. Chapter 10: Already, Again?

**_This chapter has slowly been pieced together over the course of several days...I am anxious to get to the parts that I've been dying to do and I have to restrain myself from rushing this along lol, so I might be a little slow writing the chapters, just so you're forewarned._**

 ** _Thank you so much for your patience with me, and for the reviews (Gosh the reviews, I love the reviews, you guys are hilarious haha)_**

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 ** _Pretty please with a cherry on top?_**

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* * *

A relentless high pitched whine woke Aria up; she groaned and buried deeper under the covers while there was movement around her. Blindly, her hand reached out instinctively for the alarm clock, wanting to shut the alarm off as soon as possible as the incessant screech continued.

"What time is it?" she muttered, her voice muffled by the pillow.

Luke's abnormally-awake-by-her-standards voice answered her. "About three hundred galactic standard time."

"Who gets up at this Force-forsaken hour?" Aria groaned, burying deeper into her bed—she was too tired to appreciate the fact that she was familiar with military time. Luke laughed at her.

"I can tell you're not a morning person," he said in amusement.

"I'm a creature of the night, and everyone around me is morning people for some reason," Aria replied. Luke snickered.

"Well, I'll come and wake you up again at a later time after my morning exercises."

Aria grunted. "Thank you."

The sound of the door opening reached her ears. "You're welcome," he said before he left the room, and Aria soon fell asleep once again mere moments after he'd left.

* * *

Luke strolled along the deserted halls of _Home One_ , his mind abuzz even though he'd just woken up. The only people awake at this time were those who had been up all night for whatever reason or had to be up early to get something done. Almost no one was crazy enough to get up this early to get a few hours of exercise in before the day truly started.

Then again, Luke was the only Jedi aboard _Home One_.

As he navigated his way to the empty room he normally occupied when he went through his morning exercises, his mind drifted back to the night before. He'd learned more about his family in those two hours or so than in his entire life. His father, a slave freed by Obi-Wan's Master in a bet on a podrace and also the supposed child of a prophecy foretelling the destruction of the Sith and the restoration of balance to the Force. His mother, a queen disguised as a handmaiden that took back her home planet of Naboo herself when the Senate wouldn't help. Obi-Wan the Jedi Padawan who was the first Jedi to slay a Sith in over a millennia and held his mentor in his arms as he died before swearing to the dying man to teach Luke's father, even if he had to train Anakin without the Council's permission. Then there was the droid control ship; his father had destroyed it so similarly to how Luke had destroyed the Death Star, but at the age of nine! He was still trying to get over the fact the Emperor had been one of his mother's trusted advisors during the time of the Republic before he became the Chancellor, and it sickened him to see such an evil man deceiving everyone.

Luke smiled a little to himself as he remembered the podrace on Tatooine. He'd flown in some of those very spots with his T-16, and now to know that he'd been racing in the same place his father had raced for his freedom. Now, he also understood why Aria had said it was an interesting choice of words for Luke to call her an angel; his father had called his mother the same thing when he'd first saw her.

Seeing his grandmother had been another moment of excitement for him. He'd always wanted to know her, having heard a little about her from his aunt and uncle and sometimes wondering what stories she would have had about Anakin to tell Luke. Though the fact Anakin didn't have a father...the fact Luke didn't have a _grandfather_...now that still blew his mind. Conceived by the Force itself, now that...that was something that would take some time for Luke to get used to.

With all of his reactions the night before it was a wonder Luke hadn't woken up the rest of the ship; though he could take comfort in the fact that Aria got into the movie just as much as he did, so he wasn't the only one getting emotional or jumping out of his seat in excitement or frustration. The podrace had been especially interesting as they had both been high off of the adrenaline that the race caused them, during which Aria had sheepishly admitted that she loved races and there were some that just never got old to her.

Luke subconsciously waved a hand and caused the door he'd stopped in front of to slide open, granting him permission into the nearly empty room he frequently occupied for exercise runs. All the while he mulled over the conversation he'd had with Aria after the movie had finished when he'd been dying to see more, to know more of the family history that was right at his fingertips. Of course Aria had said before they'd watched the first movie that the first one was all they could fit with her battery life; Luke was anxious for Anakin to figure out how to charge her laptop so he could continue watching the movies. Still, Aria had made a very good point last night...

" _You might not want to see all of this..." Aria said softly, interrupting Luke's excited tirade about the other two movies that would show him more of his family history he had no access to anywhere else in the galaxy._

" _Why wouldn't I? I can finally have answers, I can finally know how, and why, this...this is amazing! I have to see all of them, I have to know!" Luke had responded almost immediately._

" _Because, the third one shows Anakin's fall..." Aria said quietly. That got Luke to pause, and he slowly sat back down on the bed beside her._

" _Isn't that just another reason to watch it? I've always wanted to know..." Luke told her softly. Aria was shaking her head before he could even get the first sentence out._

" _Luke, what happened with your father...it's the definition of a tragedy. I can't even watch the last half of the movie, and I'm not even the one it happens to, or someone directly affected by it like you are. When I say I can't watch it, I mean I_ physically _can't watch it because it's so painful to watch...so many missed opportunities, so many moments when just one word said...just one thing done differently could have changed everything..."_

 _Luke was silent for several long moments, staring at the box set at the foot of the bed as he took Aria's words into serious consideration. Finally, he turned back around to face her. "Aria, I have to know the truth. I've been lied to about what happened to my family long enough, and I need to know for myself what really happened; an unbiased opinion of what happened, the events as they truly took place without any alterations...that's what you have here, and I need to know. I may not like it, no...but it would be better than being left in the dark and left wondering if anything else I hear is true."_

 _Aria sighed, clasping her hands tightly together in her lap and staring at them intently. "You're right I...I'd hate for you to be open to any manipulations, and knowing the unbiased truth for yourself would allow you to judge what happened for yourself as well instead of relying on the word of others..." she said softly, wringing her hands together before she looked up at him. "But it's not going to be easy; it'll be very painful to watch and...if you do go through with this and watch it...I'll watch it with you. I'd hate for you to have to go through that alone."_

 _Luke laughed, albeit a little nervously. "You're talking like we're leaving for a week journey through the Dune Sea with only one canteen of water for both of us."_

 _Aria held his gaze, her expression deadly serious. "That's a pretty good comparison. On an emotional scale...there may be some moments of happiness, but for the most part it's only heartache that you'll find in that movie. Luke, you must understand, this movie doesn't just have Anakin falling to the dark side; it shows some of the monstrosities he did, it has your mother's death, how Anakin came to be in that suit, betrayal and deceit from all sides and misunderstandings that tear dear friends and family apart...knowledge can be a blessing...but it can also be a great burden. I'd know."_

 _Despite the worry for what he was getting himself into that blossomed inside of him at her words, he put a gentle hand on her knee. "Well then, at least I'll have the comfort of knowing I'm not the only one bearing the burden," he said seriously. She blushed, which cause him to blush a little as well and pull his hand away. Aria was the one to break the awkward silence._

" _So, um...the others are kind of chomping at the bit to watch more of these, but I still don't think showing them the movies of their timeline is a wise idea considering hardly any of it has happened yet and some of those revelations may do more harm than good. I was thinking of showing them your trilogy...if that's all right with you," Aria said, her tone rushed as she busied herself with pulling out The Phantom Menace and placing it back into the movie case. Luke didn't see any reason for not letting them see his trilogy now that it was out there that Darth Vader was his father and Vader was also Anakin. He shrugged._

" _I guess so; if you're showing me their story you might as well show them mine," he pointed out. Aria smiled weakly._

" _Yeah...I guess that would give Anakin some of the answers he's been hounding me for..." Aria mused._

" _I still don't quite see why you won't just tell them," Luke told her, standing up from his spot on the bed to get ready to turn in._

 _Aria sighed. "You'll understand whenever you watch that movie...I'd rather not put that burden on them; they don't need the extra weight."_

Luke shook himself out of the memory, grabbing onto a low hanging bar with both hands and starting his workout with some simple chin-ups. He couldn't deny that Aria's warnings had left him a little hesitant to watch the movie, but his resolve was still firm; he had to know what had happened no matter how painful she professed it could be for him.

With a frown, Luke realized that while Aria seemed to know everything about Luke and his family, he hardly knew anything about her; and plenty of questions had been raised on that matter, especially with her reaction when the Rebellion High Command had started asking her questions about her family. Her reaction had been...most unexpected, to say the least. The complete turnaround in mood that Luke had sensed in her, and how quickly she had shut down to them were astonishing. She seemed like such a pleasant, mild girl, though he'd seen already she had some courage in her and a little bit of a spit-fire to her she kept buried deep down. It didn't help he got the sense that she was still keeping things from him, just as she was still keeping things from the other three. Luke could only hope that she truly knew for a fact that what she was keeping secret was for everyone's good, and not just because she was unsure of how he would react. Information was a powerful thing during war, and she had plenty of it to go around. His main concern was if she knew what she was doing with that information, or if she was doing a lot of guessing and stabbing in the dark.

He continued to mull over the things he'd seen last night and the discussions he'd had with Aria as he continued on with his workout, rolling through his chin ups, one handed pushups, sit ups, and other rudimentary exercises before he moved on to laps around the room to substitute for his jogs across the dangerous terrain of Dagobah, followed closely by his one-handed handstand during which he focused on levitating as many objects in the room with the Force simultaneously. That momentarily took his attention away from thoughts of the night before as he had to divert all of his focus on levitating the objects around the room and maintaining his balance. He was so immersed in his task and focused on lifting more objects than his previous workout that Luke didn't even realize that someone had approached and walked in on his exercise routine until a voice broke through his concentration.

"So this is what you're doing up so early."

Luke was so startled he lost his grasp on some of the pieces of furniture he was levitating, though he managed to catch them again before they hit the ground. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he kept his handstand and the multiple items in the air while he also spent whatever remaining concentration he had to focus on his sudden visitor.

It was Anakin.

"How did you find me?" Luke asked, maintaining his steady one-handed handstand.

Anakin shrugged. "It was actually pretty easy; you weren't shielding yourself, and once I pinpointed the only other awake Force Sensitive, I just followed the presence till I wound up in here."

He hadn't thought of that. Then again, he was on _Home One_ and was used to not having to hide his presence due to the lack of Force Sensitives in the galaxy. "So what are you doing up so early?"

Anakin shifted to another spot in the room, kicking idly at the ground. "I don't sleep much, some nights I sleep less than others."

"Bad dreams?" Luke asked, deciding to take on the task of lifting another object, thus dividing his attention even further.

"Sometimes," Anakin admitted. "You too?"

If he hadn't been doing a handstand, Luke would have shrugged. "Not really. I get the occasional bad dream, but I'm normally up this early for, well, obvious reasons."

"Did Aria get any sleep?"

Luke frowned at that. "She wouldn't have come out of the bed if I tried to drag her out by her ankles; I'm surprised the alarm woke her truthfully..."

Anakin nodded. "That's good to hear."

"Why?" Luke asked.

"The past week or two she's been plagued by vicious nightmares. It always takes a while to snap her out of it and calm her down...I realized I forgot to warn you about that."

Luke didn't even bother trying to split his attention now. He gently set everything in the room down, flipping to his feet with a frown gracing his features as he walked up to Anakin. "Nightmares? What about?"

Anakin grimaced, leaning against the wall behind him and folding his arms over his chest. "I don't know if she'd want me to tell you, but if you're going to be sharing a room with her you should be prepared in case they come back." He sighed. "A few days before we arrived here, her father was killed in an accident with a drunk driver. She's been having nightmares since. Several nights it was so bad I had to get in the bed with her and hold her until she calmed down again."

Luke slowly took a seat on a nearby container. "I wasn't expecting that..." he admitted quietly, shaking his head. "She knows practically everything about us, yet...I haven't forgotten I hardly know anything about her."

Anakin shifted in place, getting more comfortable. "Well, I can't really tell you as much as she can, but I can tell you what I know from the few weeks we spent with her in her galaxy..."

"You have my attention," Luke said with a weak smile.

With that, Anakin launched into explaining as much about Aria Neads as he could in as much detail as possible. It wasn't much of a happy story, though Luke was glad to hear some happy moments among all the bad. No wonder she'd reacted the way she had whenever Mon Mothma brought up her parents.

"I wouldn't have guessed," Luke said once Anakin had finished.

Anakin snorted. "She tends to pack a few surprises and secrets around with her, yes."

Luke noted the bitter tone in Anakin's tone, and was quick to figure out what was bothering him. "Still upset that she's been keeping things from you?"

"Upset is an understatement," Anakin muttered.

"I can't blame her, really. I've been starting to see why she's been picking and choosing what she tells. You might like the discussion I had with her though."

Anakin cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really? And why's that?"

"We were talking about the movies after she showed me The Phantom Menace—which she told me you three watched as well—and we came to an agreement of sorts. She asked for my permission to show you guys my story, the three movies about me including the one that hasn't happened yet. She's going to show me the three about you guys on the other hand; so you three will know my story...and I'll finally know yours. Though she's still touchy about showing me the third one," Luke explained, watching Anakin carefully. Anakin seemed to struggle with himself for a few moments before he deflated a little.

"I guess I can settle for that," he said with a sigh. "Why's she so hesitant to show you the third one?"

"Apparently that's when everything happens," Luke said quietly. "And she warned me several times over that it's not pleasant, and offered to watch it with me too."

Anakin suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable, casting his eyes down. "I still can't believe..." he mumbled, trailing off. A dark feeling of mourning settled over the room, stirring Luke to action.

"I never knew how much I had in common with my father," he said suddenly, brushing off the awkwardness that threatened to come out as he brought the subject around to a different path.

Anakin smiled weakly at the statement. "Yes well...Padme and I are still trying to overcome the awkwardness that came when we heard you were _our_ son...you should have seen us last night," he said with a soft snort. "We made quite the scene; Obi-Wan was just the added bonus."

"How...how well do you two know each other right now?" Luke asked curiously. Anakin shrugged.

"I wish I could figure her out. She's been blocking my every attempt until recently, when she started to let me in...a little. Aria kind of ushered us to be open with each other and get together after a fair share of warnings, but...you can still only go so fast...and Padme does have a point when she points out our position..."

"Your position?"

Anakin sighed again. "Attachments are forbidden in the Jedi Order; if I got with her—married her as Aria says we were—and the Jedi Council found out, I could be expelled from the Order. And a Jedi and a Senator...the problems that would rise there would be merciless...not to mention we're on the brink of a war right now, a war that will be sending me all over the Galaxy."

"I'd say it's worth the risk..." Luke said quietly.

"That's what I say, but Padme's still hesitant," Anakin said with a small smirk. A few moments of silence lingered between them before Anakin straightened up and gestured towards where Luke had been doing his workout a few moments prior. "Need someone to spar with to work on your lightsaber technique?"

Luke felt his cheeks warm up a little. "I can't."

Anakin gave him a strange look. "Why not?"

Luke chewed on the inside of his cheek a little, suddenly reluctant to talk. "I, ah...lost my lightsaber at Bespin...I don't have a lightsaber right now..."

 _I lost my hand too, but there's no need to tell him he took my hand and add to his guilt,_ Luke thought. Anakin frowned.

"You haven't made a new one?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know how truthfully. I've pulled apart a lightsaber to see what's in it before but...I haven't really had the chance to figure out how to make a new one yet."

Anakin's frown deepened and he shook his head before he pulled a storage box up next to Luke, unhooking his lightsaber from his belt and showing it to Luke. "Well, might as well start somewhere, right?"

Luke studied the weapon. It was actually different—slightly different, but still different—from the lightsaber that he had inherited. He'd have to ask Aria about that. Anakin offered the weapon to Luke again, and Luke realized Anakin wanted him to hold it.

"I'll show you what's in one first, and we can go from there. Don't worry about taking it apart, I assure you I can put it back together again."

"Because you're that good of a mechanic?" Luke joked, cracking a small smile. Anakin rolled his eyes.

"That...and I made this myself when I was thirteen," Anakin said in amusement.

"Oh..." Luke said in embarrassment. "Right..."

Anakin chuckled a little before he reached out to the Force to start to disassemble his lightsaber. "All right, so this is the diatium power cell..."

* * *

When Aria woke up again, it was—unfortunately—not because she'd woken up herself. Yet again it was because of some other early bird nutcase. She groaned at the knocking, rolling over in bed and snuggling further under the covers before she answered in a disgruntled voice.

"Who is it?" she called out.

"Obi-Wan; are you up?"

Aria growled low in her throat—curse this wretched Jedi habit of getting up before any other sane sentient being. "I am now," she called back in annoyance. To her further agitation, the door opened.

"C'mon, it's time to get up," Obi-Wan told her, pulling the sheets back. She made a loud sound of complaint.

"No," she moaned, reaching for the blanket. Obi-Wan was apparently in a cruel mood, as he pulled it further out of reach.

"Yes, now; the Alliance High Command is looking for Luke to see if he wants to go on another mission, and we've been given the option to go with him, but the briefing is as soon as they find him and he says yes," Obi-Wan explained as Aria slowly got up into a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. She grumbled under her breath for a few moments.

"All right...I'm coming," she muttered, trying to flatten her wild bedhead. "Where is he?"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan replied simply. "I just know he's with Anakin."

"Got it...the Skywalker boys are together...Armageddon is most likely in progress...I'm up...I'm coming..." she mumbled. Obi-Wan laughed softly, waiting for her to get on her feet before he led her out of the room. Padme was just coming out of the room next to them when they left Luke and Aria's room and joined them without a word. Sleepy Aria, on the other hand, had plenty to say.

"What is it with you people and getting up early?" she grumbled, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "Luke got up at, like, three this morning; don't you guys understand the concept of sleep?"

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. "Well, it's six now, so you shouldn't complain too much. You've gotten up at this time before."

"Doesn't mean I like doing it," Aria mumbled, but she let that topic drop. "So Obi-Wan, do you know where you're taking us, or are we just wandering around hoping to run into the boys?"

"I'm following Anakin's presence in the Force," Obi-Wan replied patiently. Aria lightly knocked her palm against her forehead.

"Duh...if it wasn't so early I might have actually thought of that."

Obi-Wan politely patted her shoulder. "It'll be all right."

Aria simply grumbled under her breath again.

* * *

By the time they finally found the two Skywalker boys, it was not to find them covered in grease and oil or in the middle of some sort of mischief as Aria had assumed. They were leaning over the pieces of a disassembled lightsaber with Anakin explaining...something in a voice so low Aria couldn't hear a sound coming from him, though apparently Luke could. Obi-Wan was the first to break the silence, clearing his throat.

"And what, might I ask, is going on in here?" Obi-Wan asked, an eyebrow raised in question. Anakin's head snapped up at the sound of his Master's voice, surprise flickering across his features for a moment.

"Master, what are you doing here?" he asked in surprise.

"Apparently supervising your attempt at a lesson," Obi-Wan answered in amusement.

"Oh, come now Obi-Wan, I'm sure he's doing just fine," Aria scolded him lightly, musing her hair a little as she approached the two. "He did have an apprentice during the Clone Wars, and she turned out just fine; she was even a Rebellion Leader for a while. I don't know what happened to her beyond that, but she turned out just fine with his teachings."

Everyone was staring at her, so she just shrugged. "What? It's the truth; I don't know much of her Rebellion time, so don't ask. There's not much on her after the Clone Wars."

"Me? A teacher?" Anakin asked incredulously. "No way; a Padawan isn't for me. Not in a thousand years."

Aria smirked. "You say that now..." She shook her head and heaved a sigh, turning her attention back to Obi-Wan. "Weren't we here for a reason?"

"Right," Obi-Wan said with a shake of his head. "Luke, High Command is looking for you."

"Really?" Luke asked, springing to his feet while Anakin gathered up the pieces of his lightsaber. "How long have they been looking for me?"

"Don't worry, it hasn't been long," Obi-Wan assured him. "They want to see all of us about a new mission. It's for you, but the invitation has been extended for us to join you on it."

"Already? That was fast, even for them," Luke said in amusement. "Well, I know where they'll be, so I guess follow me."

Aria was watching Anakin in fascination as he reassembled his lightsaber with the Force, standing up to take his spot next to Luke. "Lead the way," he said, clipping the lightsaber to his waist.

* * *

General Madine and some of his advisers were assembled and awaiting them in the debriefing room, leaning over the layout of a building and talking in hushed whispers the entire time. They all quieted down when the group entered.

"You sent for me?" Luke asked as he came to a stop in front of the table. The other four stayed in the background, watching the proceedings closely.

"Skywalker; I see Master Kenobi found you," General Madine said. "We have a rather sensitive mission for you and your companions, should they chose to accompany you."

"What do you need me to do?" Luke asked, studying the display before him; it was obvious that it had something to do with what they wanted from him.

"One of our spies was recently captured. They managed to strike a deal that would help us greatly with our need for supplies, but they were captured before they could fulfill their end of the bargain and before they could inform us of the conditions of the agreement."

"You want me to go in and get them out, finalizing the deal at the same time?" Luke guessed, suddenly studying the layout in front of him much more carefully. "Where are they? Is it just one person?"

"Just one human male, yes. You'll be traveling to the planet of Bonadan where I need you to finalize the deal with the Rodian supplies dealer Zeven Obath; he's offered to open up a much needed food supply to the Republic, though he asked for something in exchange. You'll have to find out what he wants, and if it's within reason secure it for him. The spy is Kennex Teeb, and he's one of the best we have for striking these deals right under the Imperial's nose. They're keeping him in the Detention Center in the city of Phtari." As General Madine Spoke, he pulled up pictures of the two men, the planet, the city, and the detention center. "We're downloading a disk with all the information that you'll need, though I must warn you now, weapons are banned on the planet, and you will be thoroughly scanned upon entry. Now, we have a contact remaining on the planet that can supply you with something to defend yourself once you're on-planet, but if there's something specific you're hoping to take with you, that's going to be rather difficult."

Aria didn't miss the fact that Madine's eyes flickered towards the lightsabers hanging from Anakin and Obi-Wan's waists; nor did Luke. "Don't worry General, I already have something in mind," Luke assured him.

"I'm taking that as confirmation that you'll do it?"

"Of course General; you know me."

"What about you four?" Madine asked, turning to the other four who were studying the layout in the background.

"We're in," Anakin said immediately, earning a reprimanding sharp look from Obi-Wan for speaking out of turn.

"Anakin and I are in, but I think it'd be best if the women stayed behind..." Obi-Wan said, catching his mistake a little too late. He grimaced as the two turned on him immediately.

"Excuse me?" Padme asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're insane if you think we're not coming with you," Aria scoffed.

Anakin shuffled his feet. "Well, I'm in charge of Padme's protection and Aria's really out of her element here."

"You really think my father didn't make sure I could handle myself?" Aria asked with a raised eyebrow, hands on her hips.

"That's different," Anakin argued. Aria's expression soured.

"I'm coming," she said, her voice firm and final.

"As am I; if you want to protect me like you were assigned to do, then you'll need to be around me. You can't very well protect me if you're in another system," Padme pointed out.

Luke wasn't even trying to hide his amusement. "I'm going to say we're all going," he told Madine.

"I'd say so," Madine said in equal amusement. "You'll leave in a few hours."

"So late?" Luke asked with a frown.

Madine gestured towards the other four. "They might want some time to get familiar with the technology; this is over twenty years into the future for them. And Miss Neads is going to sorely stand out in what she's wearing right now."

Aria blushed, but didn't argue that point; she was still wearing Earth clothes.

Luke inclined his head in respect. "Yes General."

"You're dismissed. Good luck, and may the Force be with you."

As they all filed out into the hall, Anakin was quick to voice his displeasure with the girls. "You two shouldn't be coming, it's too dangerous."

Aria scowled. "I believe Padme's perfectly capable of handling herself, and I can handle a weapon just fine; a gun, bow and arrows, a knife, hand to hand..."

"And just how much experience do you have with these?" Anakin asked suspiciously.

"I'm a pretty good shot, thank you very much. I wrestled with my father quite a bit, and I carried a pocket knife on me quite often," Aria said sternly. "I can get by; besides, if you're that worried about me I can simply help from afar," she finished with a scowl. She hated feeling useless.

"Well right now we need to worry about getting you to blend in," Luke said pointedly, gesturing towards Aria's jeans, tank top, and jacket. His brow furrowed in thought for a moment. "You're the same size as me; I think I might have something for you. Come on," Luke told her.

* * *

Three hours later, Aria felt like the luckiest girl in the world. Who else got to say they wore Luke Skywalker's Medel Ceremony clothes, complete with the yellow jacket? Of course, their shoe size was different, so Luke had to ask around until he found a pair of boots her size.

She was feeling pretty good about herself right about now.

Meanwhile, with everyone in the main hangar, Luke was showing the two Jedi how the ship's controls worked. Anakin had filled him in on the Prequel Trio's recent technology, and Luke was giving them a crash course on the things that had changed. Padme stood beside her, waiting for the boys to finish up.

"Did you really mean what you said, about handling yourself?" Padme asked knowingly. Aria gave her a mock wounded look.

"Of course I did!" Aria exclaimed. "I handled twenty-twos, glocks, bb guns, rifles, I'm really good with a bow and arrow, honestly, and I really did carry a pocket knife with me everywhere and my father really did teach me self-defense."

Padme shook her head. "We just don't want you getting hurt."

"I know, but I'm still coming with you guys. I'm not going to be left out now," Aria said sharply. "I'll be content with staying back for a while, but I promise I really can handle myself."

"Just be careful?" Padme asked. Aria nodded.

"I promise," Aria said sincerely.

At that moment the boys finished up their crash course and waved the girls over, so their conversation ended there as they joined the three boys on the freighter they would be using for the mission. Luke heaved a sigh, helping Padme and Aria up the landing ramp.

"We're just about ready to leave. Just a few more supplies and we should be ready to go," Luke explained.

"Have we figured out the lightsaber weapons ban problem yet?" Aria asked. Luke nodded.

"Don't worry about it, we've got it covered," Luke assured her. He pointed down a small corridor on their right. "Down there is the bunks, just so you know where they are. I'm headed back to the room to grab a few things before we leave; is there anything you need?"

"I'll just go with you so I can repack all my stuff into my handy dandy backpack," Aria said in an upbeat tone. Anakin appeared around the corner from the cockpit, and before he could even register the three in the antechamber in front of him, Aria spoke again. "Anakin, how's that little charging device coming along?"

Anakin blinked in surprise before he re-gathered his wits enough to answer her question. "Oh, decently enough. It might be another day or so before its finished...why?" Before Aria could even answer his question, he cut her off. "Never mind, I get the idea, I'll go get it," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"We were just headed that way," Aria said brightly, gesturing towards herself and Luke. Anakin shook his head and followed them down the landing ramp, pausing to lean over to Padme.

"This is going to be a _long_ trip," he muttered.

"We're leaving as soon as we get the last of the supplies onboard," Padme said with a grin, whacking his arm playfully.

"Yes ma'am," Anakin teased, giving her a little salute before he ducked off of the ship.


	11. Chapter 11: Maybe Too Many Answers

_**I am sooooo sorry that this took so long, writers block has been plaguing me, and I was also focused on finishing my actual book book which should be published and available on Amazon some time this week now :D yay! Published author!**_

 _ **AND OH MY GOSH MY FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS ALREADY KNOW THIS BUT MARK HAMILL FAVORITED ONE OF MY TWEETS ON TWITTER! (So this chapter was delayed a day cause I couldn't focus on ANYTHING after that, understandably)**_

 _ **GO CHECK OUT/LIKE MY PAGE ON FACEBOOK! I put so much stuff on there, sooo much, videos, playlists, songs, drawings, fanart, update alerts, pictures (Including fanmade pairing pictures), when I get the time I put up trailers, and when I can I'll do polls...**_

 _ **The tribute videos on here are on YouTube, I put them in here exactly as they're titled on YouTube.**_

 _ **Please review, again, I'm sorry this took so long.**_

 _ **ENJOY!**_

* * *

Once Luke was sure that they were firmly en-route, he left the cockpit. The others he could sense scattered all throughout the shuttle, but it was Aria's driven and determined concentration that caught his attention. Whatever she was doing, she obviously thought it was important. Curious, Luke changed direction to head towards her cabin.

When he found her she was sitting on the bed, pouring over pages and pages spread out all over the bed around her, sticking out of her backpack, and held firmly in her hand. Luke cautiously approached her, eyebrows raised as he tried not to judge. "So...what's going on in here?"

He took amusement in the fact that she jumped at the sound of his voice, so absorbed in her work she hadn't even heard the door slide open. Blushing, she started to gather up some of the papers. "Oh, uh, several things, actually," she replied, hastily making a clear spot for him to sit. As he did he picked up one of the papers beside him, trying and failing to read the characters on the page. He did, however, recognize Han in one of the pictures.

"What's this?" he asked, showing the page to her. It wasn't familiar to him. Aria leaned forward to see the picture and only looked at it for a second before she answered.

"Han right before landing on Endor in Return of the Jedi. It hasn't happened yet, and it actually isn't what I was looking for," she told him with a slight frown, reaching around him to pick up another paper.

"And what is it you're looking for?" he pressed. He wasn't expecting such a prompt and simple answer.

"Where Han is at this moment in time. It occurred to me that I have—somewhere amongst all this, if I can pinpoint what point in time it is right now—the location of Boba Fett, and therefore the location of Han. And I will continue to have his location unless we change too much. That was just second on my mind though; there's something else I was thinking of bringing up with you."

Luke's mind was racing. She could point them to where Han was? That was wonderful news! They'd be able to get their friend back, and Luke could finally see that hole that had developed in Leia's heart filled. She hadn't been the same since the loss of Han, understandably. Then again, if that was just secondary on her mind, what could possibly be first? "Oh really?" he asked, leaning back in mild surprise. Aria pulled one of the papers in her hand away from the stack and laid it in his lap, pointing to the picture in the middle of the page. Luke took in the painting, noticing immediately that the picture was set in Tatooine. He noticed Ben's hut next, then the green lightsaber, then the familiar blonde figure wielding the lightsaber just a ways off from Ben's hut. Luke frowned. "What is this?" he murmured, taking the page from her.

"According to the Earth version of your biography in the Legends section, you returned to Ben Kenobi's hut on Tatooine, where there was instructions on how to build your own lightsaber, adequate parts you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the Galaxy...and even the perfect place to make your own lightsaber crystal which, with the Empire taking or destroying them all, is your only option really by now," Aria said, pointing to characters on the page as she spoke. It seemed she'd forgotten that Luke couldn't read her form of Basic. "It took you...well...several months, to be honest, though to be fair you also took a few breaks here and there to help with the search for Han or Rebel Alliance matters. I was thinking maybe we should start that process a little early. If we're going to get Han back, you might want a lightsaber, especially if things still end up to where you need to wait to strike at Jabba's Palace. Then a lightsaber is going to be essential."

"Where is Fett now?" Luke asked, skimming over the other pictures. There was a lot of paintings and drawings of him...

"Um...let's see...I know it's a sensitive subject, but I have to ask..." Aria bit her lip, and how nervous she was immediately set Luke on edge; what was she about to ask? "Does the name Lumiya mean anything to you?"

Luke frowned, brow furrowed in confusion. "I have no idea who you're talking about; should I?"

Aria hesitated. "You might...know her under a different name. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it—I have an idea but I want to be absolutely sure I get it right—I think I could spell it...hold on..." She reached down into her backpack for some sort of writing utensil, took the paper back from Luke once again and flipped it over. "Let's hope I actually can remember the Aurebesh. This might take moment..."

"Take all the time you need," Luke assured her, watching as she carefully drew characters he could _actually_ read. He watched as she drew the Shen, Isk, Resk, Aurek...

Shira.

Aria was still writing, but Luke's hand snapped out and stopped her, holding it firmly in his grasp. " _Stop_ ," he commanded, causing Aria to jump. Immediately he felt bad for scaring her. "I'm sorry, it's just...I know now, and it's still fresh. Shira Brie."

Aria nodded. "Yeah, I would have mispronounced her name...that's all I'll ask about that, you don't need to say anything else. Does the planet Gall hold any meaning to you?"

Luke frowned, understandably a little nervous after the last question. "No...should it?"

Aria visibly brightened. "I know where Han is. Or will be...eventually...and I know who _not_ to bring on the rescue mission."

Luke straightened up, his rapt attention focused on Aria. "He's on Gall?"

She took the paper in Luke's hand back, adding it to the one that was already in her hand and looking over both of them. "He might be. Fett stopped there because his ship was damaged. A man named Dash Rendar followed him and damaged the ship a little more, but when you guys came along and he acted as your guide he abandoned you guys and Fett, who had returned in time to stop someone else from making off with Han, escaped before Lando and Leia could retrieve him. I suggest getting there as fast as possible _before_ a bunch of coincidences lead to his escape again...but after this rescue obviously; we're already on our way to rescue the spy."

"What if Fett gets away again?" Luke asked, scooting closer.

Aria set the papers down, skimming over the accounts one more time. "There's nothing more than that and I don't know if Boba's there right now, but that should be worth something. You've got a location. After that it just says asteroid field and then in a corvette; no specifics or even the name of the corvette ship. If this goes wrong again, you'll have to wait till Boba delivers him to Jabba on Tatooine, and that's quite a ways away."

Luke sighed, looking away. "Yes, that does count for something...I'll have to come up with some idea on how to get him back..."

"I'll keep these out just in case you want to reference them later," Aria replied with a small smile, setting the papers aside.

"They won't be much use if I can't read them now, will they?" Luke asked with a smug smile. Aria chuckled.

"I suppose not," Aria mused. She looked away for a moment, messing with the utensil in her hand for a few seconds before she ripped off a clear spot on one of the papers and wrote something down in the same characters Luke couldn't read. She pressed it into his hand. "Here."

He frowned. "What's this?"

"Incentive," Aria told him, her smile widening. "The other three can read written English quite fluently, I'm sure they'd be willing to teach you."

Luke cocked an eyebrow at her tone. "Are you giving me a test or something?"

Aria laughed. "Yes, I'm testing your patience," she said humorously, coaxing a smile out of Luke. "Really, it is incentive. When you know how to read my form of written Basic, you'll be able to read that. See? Motivation."

"All right then," Luke said in amusement, tucking the paper away for later. He ran his hands along the many papers in the room, whishing he could read what was on them. Who knew what answers to the past a future was spread so carelessly across her bed? He frowned, taking in the different colored spots on several different papers. "Why do you have some of this highlighted?"

Aria was starting to tuck away the papers, pausing to see what he was talking about before she went back to cleaning up. "Oh, things I think are of importance. Red for events I feel played a key part in Anakin's fall, yellow for important people and places, green for things that could be used to backtrack any progress towards the dark side...most of my highlights have to do with Anakin's fall. Now that we're here, I'm looking at Vader again, among other things. I've marked purple for pressure points that might coax the old Anakin Skywalker out of Vader, and I used pink for people who popped up only momentarily but played some sort of monumentous role later. Orange is for close calls, though I've only marked your close calls so far as we're now your companions and I would like to be well aware of those. Blue...I put for the Emperor's manipulations. It's hard to keep up with those and I need to look very closely at those. If I can unravel those, well...that would be very useful to say the least."

"You've got this down to a science," Luke muttered, keeping an eye out for the orange. "There's quite a bit of orange."

"There's a lot of close calls," Aria returned.

"There's a lot of blue on top of the orange," Luke added, wishing he could read what was right at his fingertips.

"The Emperor is trying to kill you while your father is trying to keep you alive. Vader's the only reason the Emperor isn't just trying to kill you; he bought you time by convincing the Emperor to try and turn you to the dark side. Usually when you have a close call, the Emperor has something to do with it," Aria said gravely, gathering up the last of the papers as Luke stared in concern at the bag.

"There's a lot you're not sharing with me too, isn't there?" Luke asked suddenly, startling Aria into silence for a few moments. Finally, she nodded.

"Yes, there's just...some things I'm not quite sure should be brought to light just yet. One step at a time; I don't want to dump too much on you at once, though I am hoping to put the Rebel Alliance one step ahead of the Emperor. The Emperor's cooking up a trap for the Alliance, and I'm hoping to turn it on him."

Luke was immediately sent into a state of alarm. "What? What trap?"

Aria grimaced. "He's going to purposely let some top secret information leak to the Rebel Alliance in an attempt to get everyone in the same spot at once so he can destroy them...I'm going to get that information to them before he can." She bit her lip, thinking something over for a few moments. "You might want to see if you can get someone to check out Endor."

Luke raised an eyebrow when she didn't expand. "You're not going to say anything else? Something that could destroy the Rebellion, and you're just going to say check out Endor?" he asked in surprised. He was careful to keep his tone from being harsh or scornful; he just wanted to know why she was being so vague.

"I don't want to cause panic too early, and I don't want the Emperor knowing the Alliance knows something is off. If just one person heads out there, or two, just to check it out, then if they get caught it was just a curious probe for a possible base as far as the Empire is concerned. If they truly don't know about what's out there, then the Empire won't panic."

"They'll just believe we'll take the unreturned probe as a sign that the area isn't safe for us to make a base in," Luke murmured.

"Hopefully, it won't come to that. _Hopefully_ , it will be a get in, see what I'm tipping you all off about, and then get out thing. It's kind of hard to miss what the Empire's got there."

"Can't you just tell us what's there?" Luke asked.

"They might not believe me; best to make an anonymous tip so that there's no questions about how I know what I know. I'd prefer if the knowledge of me being from a different galaxy and knowing almost everything stayed with very few people thank you very much. On top of that, I'm focused on Anakin, first of all, Han, and then getting you armed again, because you're going to need that lightsaber; you're going to need it soon, and you're going to need it for all these lovely _next steps_ I'm keeping to myself right now."

Before Luke could press for anything more than Endor, Anakin suddenly walked into the room. "Hey I think I finally finished that—" he trailed off as he saw Luke and Aria sitting on the bed together, Luke staring at Aria rather intently. Luke subconsciously shifted away when he realized what it must have looked like.

"What did you finish?" Aria asked, eyebrows raised at the surprised look on Anakin's face. Anakin shook himself a little and moved to stand in front of her, pressing something into her hands.

"That way to charge your laptop. I don't know what I'm going to do now to distract myself, but—"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I already have a project for you again," Aria said with a grin, looking the device over several times. "This is great, I can start making some real progress now."

"Project?" Anakin asked, as if she hadn't said anything else. He looked rather exasperated. "What project?"

"Luke?" Aria asked pointedly, already reaching into her backpack for her laptop. Luke rolled his eyes while she figured out how to work the device, pulling the paper out once again and staring at it intently as he spoke.

"She means teach me to read her written form of Basic," Luke told him. Anakin offered his hand.

"And what's that?" Anakin asked. Aria, to Luke's great astonishment and confusion, blushed as Luke handed the little paper over to his younger father.

"Incentive, as she says. I can't read it until I know how to read her Basic," Luke said, looking quizzically at Aria. His puzzled expression switched to Anakin when the younger man made a strange noise in his throat, a grin spreading across his face before he started to chuckle, glancing between Aria and Luke. "What?" Luke asked, confused. Aria was as red as Vader's lightsaber.

"Incentive indeed," Anakin said simply. "How about I keep this until you're fluent; then you get to see what it says. No cheating."

Luke glanced in confusion between the two as Anakin tucked the paper away, grinning at Aria, who was burying her face into her laptop as she powered it up again. "I'm missing something."

"Yes, you are," Anakin said truthfully before he changed the topic. "So, what's the verdict? Is it working?" he asked as he approached Aria, peering over her shoulder at the screen. Aria pointed to the bottom right hand corner.

"It appears so," Aria said with a grin. Luke, admittedly, tuned them out as Anakin explained how the charger was supposed to work and what she would have to do if it needed more power. He kept his thoughts on what she'd told him.

Han on Gall...and they were armed with enough knowledge Fett hopefully wouldn't get away; a way for Luke to create a new lightsaber back on Tatooine, on Ben's hut. Not to mention possibly becoming one step ahead of the Empire.

However, there was something else that he could already tell wasn't going to leave him be.

"Why did you call her Lumiya?" Luke asked suddenly, interrupting the discussion Anakin and Aria had been having. Anakin, predictably, was confused, though Aria suddenly looked very uncomfortable; she wouldn't look Luke in the eyes.

"She's...well, first of all, she's not dead," Aria said quietly. Luke jerked from the jolt of shock that went through him at her words, suddenly finding himself on his feet.

"N-not dead?" he stuttered out. "How could she not be dead? I shot her down _myself_! I was _stripped of command_ and put _on trial_ for it, I lost faith in the Force for a while because of what happened; how could she still be alive?"

"She was pulled from the wreckage by the Imperials; you shouldn't blame yourself, Luke. If you hadn't have taken that shot she would have killed you; that was her mission. To either kill you or smear your name."

"Well she succeeded," Luke snapped, his tone bitter as he ran his hand through his hair. "There's still so many in the Rebellion that don't trust me, that think I'm actually in league with the Empire because she'd made herself a Rebellion Hero herself."

Luke leaned against the wall, resting his forehead on his arm. How was she _alive_?

"Hold this," he heard Aria murmur to Anakin. The next moment Luke felt a gentle hand placed on his shoulder. "Hey...you had no way of knowing. You're lucky to be alive, actually. Give it time, and they'll trust you again."

Luke shook his head and pulled away, headed for the door. "I think I need a moment," he murmured.

"Take all the time you need," he heard Aria say before the door slid shut behind him.

* * *

Aria sighed and turned to Anakin. "I really wish that question hadn't come up..."

"Who was he talking about?" Anakin asked, still confused about what had just happened. Aria suddenly looked depressed.

"Lumiya is the future Sith Lady arch nemesis of Luke's, but he doesn't know her as Lumiya yet. Not too long ago, apparently, there was a woman that he fell in love with named Shira Brie. She was a Rebellion Hero in her own right and became part of his squadron when he rose to the command of Rogue Squadron. While they were on a mission Luke's targeting computer was knocked out, so he relied on the Force to pick his targets. When he returned to base, he learned that one of the targets the Force had told him to hit was Shira; he'd shot her out of the sky. He was stripped of command and put on trial, as he said, and his faith was shaken in the Force. He set out to figure out _why_ the Force had told him to shoot down the woman he loved, and found out that she was an Imperial Spy. His name was cleared and he was given command of Rogue Squadron again, but...obviously it's still fresh and he hasn't recovered from it yet. It must not have been that long ago," Aria explained quietly. Anakin felt horror and sympathy settle inside of him.

"You said her mission was to kill him or smear his name?" Anakin asked eventually. Aria nodded.

"She infiltrated and climbed the ranks of the Rebellion to either kill him or ostracize him. Unfortunately she succeeded with the latter," Aria murmured, sitting down and running her hand through her hair as Luke had done not moments ago. "It's also true, however, that eventually those that still don't trust him will again. He just needs time to heal."

"How did that even come up?" Anakin asked, allowing Aria to take the computer back.

"I was trying to figure out just where in the timeline we are; I asked about Lumiya, having forgotten he didn't know her by that name, and then asked about her to see if that had already happened. I really should have thought before I said Lumiya..." Aria muttered.

"Just..." Anakin sighed, shaking his head. "Just let him have some space."

Aria sighed. "I know; I just wish I hadn't brought up such a sensitive subject. Can we change the topic now?"

Anakin nodded, glancing back at the laptop before he straightened up and pulled out the note she'd given Luke. "Seriously?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. Aria blushed.

"Yeah...seriously..." she said in embarrassment, unable to look him in the eyes. Anakin chuckled.

"I'll be sure to keep this safe until he can read English fluently. Maybe he'll even agree with you by then," Anakin teased.

"Shut up," Aria muttered, reaching into her bag and pulling out the Star Wars Saga again. "Show me where Obi-Wan and Padme are, and I'll set you guys up to watch A New Hope. I've got to ask Luke something before you watch it though."

Anakin's smile vanished. "You're not going to say anything else to upset him, are you?"

"That's just insensitive," Aria said with a scowl. "No, I'm not; I'm just going to ask if he wants to come join us; it is his story we're watching, and it might give him something to distract him from...that."

Aria sighed, putting one of the discs into the laptop and handing it to Anakin. "Here, go hunt down the others, I'll go find Luke and talk to him."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Try not to make it worse."

"Thank you so much for the vote of confidence Anakin," Aria replied sarcastically before he door slid shut.

"Anytime," Anakin murmured, sliding the mouse over to her videos file instead of the movie.

He distinctly remembered her saying something about tribute videos...maybe he could get away with watching one or two of them.

* * *

It took her a while, but Aria eventually got enough sense to realize that if one was looking for a Skywalker on a starship, they needed to look in the cockpit. Sure enough, Luke was in the pilot's seat, reclined back and staring at the stars of hyperspace passing by. The only sound in the cockpit was the faint hum of the many different devices she couldn't' even begin to name; she'd always focused so much on the people she forgot to look at quite a bit of the technical aspects of the Star Wars Universe. Hesitantly, Aria approached Luke and took a seat next to him in the co-pilot seat; he didn't even acknowledge that she'd entered the room.

"How are you holding up?" Aria asked tentatively.

"I've been better...but I've also been much worse," Luke replied after a few beats of silence. Aria nodded, wiping a sweaty palm on her lap as she tried to figure out what else to say.

"Why don't you ask me something?" she suddenly said. Luke gave her a strange look.

"What?" he asked. Aria sighed.

"Whenever I was upset, sometimes my father would have me start asking him a bunch of questions to get my mind off of what was upsetting me," she said sheepishly. Luke blinked in surprise, but eventually managed to get a question out haltingly.

"All right...ah...your favorite food?" he managed to ask.

"My mother's enchiladas or quesadillas. But I also love fruit, and chocolate is a given," Aria said promptly.

"Favorite animal?"

"A tiger...or a wolf...or a cheetah...or an eagle," Aria said, starting to grin.

"It sounds like you're not very decisive," Luke mused.

"I have a lot of favorites," Aria responded.

"Favorite color?" he asked.

"Blue," Aria said immediately as she held his gaze, a blush creeping up her face before she cleared her throat and looked away. "And red and purple, those too."

"What are you afraid of?" Luke asked, deciding not to dwell too much on her sudden embarrassment.

"Heights, namely falling from them, spiders, I hate spiders...and loosing people I care about," she finished a little awkwardly. It was Luke's turn to clear his throat, and he quickly steered the conversation in a different direction again.

"What did you sing to me when I was unconscious?"

Aria blinked in surprised. "What?"

Now Luke was blushing. "Well, I kind of heard you singing to me while I was unconscious back on the Executor, and I was wondering what it was you were singing."

"Oh," Aria said, then to Luke's surprise she started to laugh. "That, well...I was singing different versions of Angel of Music, one of my favorite songs from my favorite musicals."

"What's the musical?"

"The Phantom of the Opera. It's actually a romantic tragedy, sometimes classified as horror, but it's amazing, I love it," she said with a sigh.

"Could I hear you sing that again, sometime...it was really beautiful," Luke complimented, looking away with a blush the next moment. Aria was blushing as well.

"Thank you...I could, if you want me to. You just have to ask," Aria said.

"Did you come back here just to check up on me?" Luke asked, steadily sobering. Aria shook her head.

"Mostly, but at the same time no. I was just about to show the other three A New Hope, the first movie in your trilogy. I was wondering if you wanted to join us; see how the first Star Wars movie was, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, etcetera, etcetera," Aria said. "Plus you might need to explain a few things and I'm sure there's a few questions that they'll have as they watch. For example, Anakin doesn't know he has a stepbrother yet."

Luke looked away for a moment, fiddling with his prosthetic hand he didn't realize she knew was prosthetic. He wasn't too keen on seeing Ben, Aunt Beru, Uncle Owen, and Biggs die all over again. "I guess so..."

It seemed Aria hadn't forgotten about the deaths surrounding the events of the Death Star either. "You don't have to stay there for the entire movie, you can get up to, oh, I don't know, check something in the cockpit, get a drink, I don't mind."

He smiled gratefully. "Thank you."

Aria shrugged. "It's nothing. Now we just need to worry about finding Anakin again; I left him alone with my laptop. Now that I'm thinking about it that probably wasn't the wisest thing for me to do."

"Why, what do you have on there?" Luke asked, concerned as he rose to his feet with her.

"A lot. Including some videos that have some information in them I'd rather he didn't find out about yet," Aria explained, making her way out of the cockpit with Luke close behind. "I'll go get him; could you find Obi-Wan and Padme? I'll meet you in the central chamber."

"All right," Luke said with a nod, taking a right. Aria took that as her sign to take a left towards the cabins; she'd already been turned around.

She was speaking as soon as the door to the cabin had opened. "Okay, how much have you seen?"

Any light scolding she had in mind vanished when she saw how pale Anakin was. She was at his side in a flash, kneeling in front of him and trying to pry the laptop out of his clutches. "Anakin...Anakin are you still with me?"

He looked like he was trying to answer her, but was unable to, opening and closing his mouth several times. His pale color was starting to turn green, and his eyes were red like he might have cried at some point as well.

"Anakin, what did you watch?" Aria asked sternly, finally managing to pry the laptop away from him. As soon as the laptop left his clutches he managed to utter a few syllables.

"Luke...Padme..." he croaked, and Aria rushed to look at her history.

 _Luke and Anakin – Remember me for centuries_

 _[Star Wars] There is Still Good in Him_

 _Anakin Skywalker | A Tragic Hero (Redemption)_

They were all tribute videos she'd downloaded from YouTube a long time ago.

" _Sister_?" Anakin rasped out. Aria set the laptop aside, focusing all of her attention on Anakin. She placed a hand on his cheek.

"Anakin, look at me..." she said firmly, waiting until his eyes were locked onto her gaze before she continued. "There was a reason I didn't want you looking at this, all right? You haven't hurt them, okay? You haven't done them wrong in any way, you haven't done that, not yet, and we're going to make it so you won't, okay?"

"My mother...I thought it was just Luke..." Anakin continued to mumble. Aria was starting to worry he'd gone into shock.

"You're mother's going to be fine Anakin, I promise you, I've already made sure of that. I already talked to Obi-Wan about letting you go to Tatooine, she's going to be fine." She hesitated before making sure she had Anakin's absolute attention. "Anakin...I need you to not say a word to _anyone_ about Luke having a sister; no one knows, not even his sister. It's also the only reason she's still alive and well to this day. You can't say anything about Luke's sister, not even to Luke. Luke doesn't know yet, and he won't know for a little while longer. You can't say a word about it, or her life will be in danger, okay?"

"I-I hurt them, I..." Anakin trailed off, unable to voice the horrors he'd seen in the videos. Aria shook her head.

"Anakin, I need you to take a deep breath and calm down. You know some of the secrets I'm carrying now, and I need them to stay secret, okay? We need to go out there and act like you haven't just seen these, all right? You can't say a _word_ to Luke about his sister."

"He was screaming, and the lightning...he was _dying_ and V-Vader... _I_ was just _standing there_..." Anakin stuttered out.

"But Vader still saved his life, he still turned from the dark, killed the Emperor, and saved Luke. Anakin, please, you need to calm down; this is why I wouldn't let you look at it yet."

Anakin blinked, looking up at her. "You promise me we'll change this? I...I could never hurt them like that, I would _never_..."

"I know you wouldn't Anakin, I know you wouldn't," Aria said soothingly. "I need you right now to take a few deep breaths so that we can go out there and act like this hasn't happened. You just hold onto the thought that we're not going to let any of this happen, okay? It's going to be all right."

It took him a while, but Anakin eventually managed to take several deep, steadying breaths, the red left his eyes, and he was able to bottle away the look of fearful, horrified panic that had been on his face just moments earlier.

"You promise?" he asked, his voice flat and monotone.

"I promise; it's why I'm here," Aria said firmly. "Now, let's try to make yourself sound a little livelier; you're finally about to see one of the movies I forbid you from watching, remember?"

He cleared his throat. "Right...right..." With that, he stood up, hands shaking slightly as he took the laptop from her and started up the movie player. "Let's go...I'm all right."

Aria sighed, shaking her head. "You guys are impossible. At this rate all the secrets are going to come out _way_ too early."


	12. Chapter 12: A New Hope

_**THIS CHAPTER IS HUGE!**_

 _ **Holy crap...so...um...I don't have any words...I worked on this so long I'm just happy I'm done with it.**_

 _ **Please go like my Facebook page, I've got so much on there for you guys :D AngelDesaray of Fanfiction**_

 _ **I'm finally a published author *Does happy dance* and Eternity's Guardian is now for sale on Amazon (Book 1 of the Eternity Saga)**_

 _ **Please Review...**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

Luke looked up as Aria and Anakin entered the central chamber, the laptop in Anakin's hands and a mask of perfect calm schooled across the other Skywalker's face. Luke gave Aria a questioning look, but Aria shook her head in a clear signal that she wasn't about to bring the subject up yet. Anakin sat the laptop down in front of the group that was collectively reclining on the couch and Aria cracked her knuckles eagerly.

"All right, how about after we finish this up and all the Q and A is done, we start figuring out what we're going to do when we arrive on…Bonadan, was it?" Aria proposed, taking something from Anakin as Anakin took a seat beside Padme. Obi-Wan was on the other side of Padme and Luke was beside Obi-Wan.

Luke nodded in response to her question. "We do need to go over that; I haven't been on that many negotiating missions, but I can handle that part well enough."

"I'd offer my services, but I really feel that I don't understand enough of what's going on in the galaxy right now to be much help," Padme told him as Aria sat beside Luke.

"Even if you're not quite sure of the galaxy right now, I'm sure any help you can offer will be wonderful," Aria quipped. "Now, I don't think we should put this off any longer as I know plenty of you have been chomping at the bit to watch this."

"You're being awfully quiet over there Anakin; it's making me nervous," Obi-Wan suddenly said, his pale blue eyes narrowed speculatively.

"He's probably setting an example so that the rest of us will stop chatting and he can finally watch this movie; he's the one who's wanted to watch them the most," Aria said perhaps a little too quickly. Luke was going to have to ask her about her jitteriness after the movie. Anakin seemed grateful that she'd distracted attention away from him, but Luke kept his comments to himself and instead watched the images rolling across the screen as the movie came to its menu. Once again, he couldn't read the characters, so he simply watched some of the images roll by. They were rather accurate, and it was weird to see the spitting image of himself. A small pang went through him at the image of Han and Ben, and an involuntary shiver went down his spine at the sight of Vader.

"All right, are we ready? No bathroom breaks in the middle that make us have to pause the movie, because I hate those," Aria said, moving the small device in her hand that moved something on the screen to hover over the first word. When no one said anything, she shrugged. "All right then."

She settled back into her seat, leaning over to Luke. "Do you want me to read the opening crawl out loud for you, like I did for the Phantom Menace?" she asked in a low whisper. The Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare, as she'd called it when they watched the Phantom Menace, was already playing, though it sounded different from the other movie.

"That would be nice, yes," Luke said with a sigh, embarrassed at being the only one who couldn't read her English. That was something he was going to have to fix as soon as possible at this rate, as a lot of important things were starting to show up in English. Aria nodded, glancing at the blue words on the screen.

"A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away…" she whispered with a small grin. Luke could sense excitement bubbling up inside her that she was trying to hide, though the goosebumps starting to appear on her arms gave her away. She straightened up and spoke a little louder for everyone to hear. "Now remember, this series was made twenty-two years before the Phantom Menace."

Obi-Wan nodded imperceptibly. "I remember you saying something about that."

Conversation was halted as the opening theme suddenly blazed to life, and Luke sensed a noticeable, involuntary spike in excitement from Aria. He wondered if the other two could sense it, or if they were just tuning her out through the Force at the moment. Aria cleared her throat and started to read the large yellow words out to Luke.

"Star Wars: It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy..." Aria murmured in a low voice. The words started to fade and Luke nodded in thanks as she sat back, obviously done with her narration for the moment.

Luke straightened up in his own seat when he recognized the surface of Tatooine as the scene shifted, his eyes narrowing slightly. He'd always had a wonder as to what had happened above the planet that had caused the two droids to end up in his possession. The large Star Destroyer fired upon the smaller ship that was trying unsuccessfully to flee from the Destroyer, fire exchanging between the two before the scene shifted to two very familiar droids. Luke felt a small pang in his heart at the sight of his two droid companions; he hadn't even gotten a chance to see one of them upon his return to Home One, he'd been put back into the field without the chance. He'd have to make it a point to find them whenever they got back from this mission.

 **Rebel soldiers ran through the halls while C-3PO hobbled along behind R2-D2, and alarms blared onboard the ship as it was constantly shaken from the hits the ship was taking.**

" **Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor! We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness!" 3PO complained. R2 tootled in response, and the dramatic music continued as rebel soldiers took up position by the door. All 3PO had to do was glance at the sight before giving his opinion on the situation. "We're doomed. There'll be no escape for the Princess this time."**

R2 whirred in response, but loud clanging along the top of the ship interrupted the droid, and Luke grimaced the same time 3PO asked, "What was that?" Just as Luke had suspected, they were pulled into the Star Destroyer the next moment.

The rebel soldiers focused again on the door as it was cut through, and a firefight erupted in the hall as the Stormtroopers began to try and push through. As the firefight continued, 3PO and R2 tried to safely maneuver through the halls and away from all the shooting with Stormtroopers and Rebel Soldiers alike falling on either side of them. After the smoke cleared considerably, the foreboding form of Darth Vader entered, and Luke felt a chill go down his spine at the combined arrival of his father and the ominous music that came with it. Apprehension could be felt in waves on the other side of the couch, and Luke glanced over to see Anakin looking rather green on the other end. It seemed he hadn't expected Darth Vader to enter the picture so soon, and had expected to have some time to prepare himself for whatever he was about to see in the movie. On the screen, Vader gave an uninterested glance to the bodies strewn across the floor before he continued on. Luke, meanwhile, made sure he would remember later to ask Aria what had Anakin all spooked. Maybe Anakin had found something on Aria's laptop he shouldn't have; Aria did say leaving her laptop with Anakin hadn't been her wisest decision.

R2's understanding chirps and 3PO's annoyed calls brought Luke's attention back to the computer. "R2-D2, where _are_ you?" Not too long after 3PO had said that, he looked down the hall he was standing in and saw Leia leaning over to press some button on R2's dome before she slipped away out of the hall and R2 started to roll towards the golden protocol droid. "At last; where have you been? They're headed in this direction. What are we going to do? We'll be sent to the Spice Mines of Kessel or smashed into who knows what!" 3PO exclaimed. R2's domed head rolled in his direction before he gave a short chirp and began to roll away from the panicking protocol droid.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" 3PO asked as R2 continued to roll away. The scene cut to show Leia watching them leave from around the corner before it cut again to the rebels and several droids being led down the hall by Stormtroopers, defeated. Unfortunately, the next scene the movie cut to was Darth Vader holding a rebel by the throat as two Stormtroopers approached. The unease on the couch predictably spiked, and Luke was sure that the urge to glance at Anakin was a shared urge from everyone on the couch.

" **The Death Star Plans are not in the main computer," one of the Stormtroopers reported.**

" **Where are those transmissions you intercepted?" Vader growled at the rebel, tightening his grip and lifting the man off of the ground. "What have you done with those plans?"**

" **We intercepted no transmissions…this is a consoler's ship! We're on a…diplomatic mission!" the rebel gasped out.**

"If this is a consoler's ship, where is the ambassador?" Vader snarled in reply before crushing the man's windpipe. Luke winced as the man was tossed to the ground and Vader spun to snap at the Stormtroopers. "Commander, tear this ship apart until you've found those plans and bring me those passengers, I want them _alive_!"

Stormtroopers started to check the rest of the ship, and Leia appeared from around one of the corners, blaster held tightly in her hands. The Stormtroopers spotted her, surprised by her sudden appearance. "There's one; set to stun!" one of the Stormtroopers said, and Leia took a shot at the Stormtrooper in front before she made a break for it. She didn't get far before one of the stun bolts hit her, and she crumpled to the ground. Luke was able to hold his wince back this time, instead shifting in place and watching as the two droids appeared once again to make their great escape.

He wasn't looking forward to seeing some of the parts he knew were coming up; they'd been bad enough the first time around. Still, he did find it interesting to see some of the things that had happened elsewhere with Leia and the droids.

* * *

" **We stopped...wake up!"**

Anakin watched curiously as 3PO and R2 were led out of the droid transport, frankly feeling rather relieved that the Darth Vader scenes were over with for now. It was nice to take a break from the imposing Sith that Anakin had become, and Anakin preferred to not think about that looming possible future.

Anakin watched, admittedly a little bored, as the many different kinds of droids were lined up in front of the Jawa transport right outside the moisture farm. Half of the droids were probably stolen, no doubt, as it was notorious for the Jawas to do. Two figures emerged from the moisture farm, and Anakin gave a start when the camera zoomed in to show an older man and a very familiar blonde haired youth. Unable to help himself, Anakin glanced at Luke on the other end of the couch. The young man had a pained, wistful expression on his face as he gazed at the older man standing beside the Luke onscreen.

"Luke? Luke!" came a woman's voice, and Anakin saw Luke jerk slightly at the woman's voice before he returned his gaze to the onscreen Luke, who was running to the edge of a pit in the ground. "Luke, tell Uncle if he gets a translator be sure it speaks bacce!"

" **Doesn't look like we have much of a choice, but I'll remind him," Luke called back, turning to go back to join the older man.** Anakin frowned at the word Uncle, glancing at Luke and Aria in mounting confusion.

"Uncle?" he asked, drawing everyone's attention. "I don't have a brother..."

Luke frowned as well, and almost immediately every eye turned to Aria, who sighed in exasperation.

"Stepbrother," she said with a shake of her head. "You haven't met him yet Anakin, but you will soon."

"S-step...Stepbrother?" Anakin stuttered out, shocked. "My mother's married?"

Aria nodded sheepishly. "Yes, she is."

Anakin sat back, dumbfounded as he turned his attention back to the movie in front of him.

"But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!" the on-screen Luke was complaining. Beside Anakin, Obi-Wan grimaced, glancing between Anakin and Luke with a small shake of his head. However, he didn't say what that was all about, though Aria smirked and leaned over to Obi-Wan to say something that sounded suspiciously like 'you can see where he gets it from' to the older Jedi.

 _Great...now there's two of them,_ Anakin couldn't help but think as he turned his attention once more to the screen.

* * *

" **Thank the Maker! This oil bath is going to feel** _ **so**_ **good!"**

Anakin sat back, watching Luke fly a model spaceship in the air. A strange pang went through him as he watched the boy, a pang he couldn't quite place as he watched Luke.

 _My son_ , he couldn't help but think. It was a strange, alien concept to him, and he was _still_ figuring out how he felt about it.

" **I've got such a bad case of dust contamination I can barely move!" 3PO complained from his spot in the oil bath. Luke set the model ship down with a sigh, getting up from his seat and approaching 3PO.**

" **It just isn't fair,"** Luke said, and Anakin was befuddled as to why Padme smiled at the statement. And why did she keep glancing at him now? Why was looking at Anakin making her smile _more_? **"Oh, Biggs is right, I'm** _ **never**_ **going to get out of here!"**

" **Is there anything I might do to help?" 3PO asked sincerely.**

" **No...not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock," Luke replied.**

" **I don't think so sir. I'm only a droid and not very knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet anyway. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on..." 3PO replied.**

" **Well...if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from," Luke responded.**

Anakin snorted, smirked, and nodded in agreement. Yes, definitely his son, and a very true statement. Anakin noticed that he was getting a curious look from Luke that was slowly turning into a light flush from bashfulness.

" **You've got a lot of carbon scarring here...looks like you boys have seen a lot of action..." Luke was commenting as he cleaned up R2.**

" **With all we've been through sometimes I'm amazed we're in as good condition as we are, what with the Rebellion and all," 3PO said.**

Luke reacted so quickly and eagerly it threw Anakin off, and he blinked as Luke shot to his feet, suddenly hanging onto every word 3PO said.

" _ **You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?**_ **"**

" **That's how we came to be in your service, if you take my meaning sir."**

" **Have you been in many battles?"**

" **Several I think. Actually there's not much to tell; I'm not much more than an interpreter, and not very good at telling stories. Well, not of anything interesting anyway."**

 **It didn't look like Luke was paying attention anymore. In fact, he was focused on R2 at the moment. "Well my little friend," Luke grunted, arms shaking with the strain to get something out of R2. "You've got something jammed in here real good...were you on a star cruiser or a—"**

 **He was cut off before he could finish, falling on his back as a hologram suddenly sprung to life.**

" **Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi," said Princess Leia. "You're my only hope."**

" **What's this?" Luke asked immediately, transfixed.**

Beside Anakin, Obi-Wan suddenly leaned forward, staring intently at the image with a frown curving his lips, chin propped up on his fists. Already Obi-Wan had been mentioned, and they weren't even half an hour into the movie.

" **Who is she? She's beautiful..." Luke said on the screen.** To Anakin's befuddlement, Aria covered an awkward smile on the other side of the couch, like she was trying to hide the fact she was laughing at some inside joke. Luke looked just as confused, but he didn't press her on the subject.

Anakin sighed. Just another thing to ask her about later. His list was getting rather long...

" **Well, I don't know anyone named** _ **Obi-Wan,**_ **but old Ben lives out beyond the Dune Sea; he's kind of a strange old hermit..."**

Anakin couldn't help it; a bark of laughter made it past his lips. While Luke gave him an odd look and Obi-Wan scowled at him, Aria rolled her eyes.

"I knew that was coming," she chuckled. Anakin shook his head, unable to keep his comment to himself.

"I always knew you'd end up a crazy old man," he chuckled, a mischievous smirk playing across his features. Aria rolled her eyes.

"All right you two, you wanted to watch this so bad, you need to pay attention," Aria scolded them lightly. Obi-Wan sighed and folded his arms over his chest as he sat back again, shaking his head.

"I promise to be quiet; I can't say the same about my Padawan though," Obi-Wan said calmly. Anakin scowled, but knew better than to made a comment in return. He instead let his attention draw back to the movie, watching as Luke entered the kitchen his aunt and uncle were in—Anakin's apparent Stepbrother and sister-in-law.

" **You know I think that R2 Unit we bought might have been stolen," Luke said as he entered, not missing a beat.**

" **What makes you think that?" Owen asked him.**

" **Well I stumbled across an old recording while I was cleaning him; he says he belongs to someone called Obi-Wan Kenobi," Luke said, oblivious to the look his aunt and uncle shared.**

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, and the current Luke, however, did not miss the look.

"What's that look for?" Obi-Wan asked, bemused. Aria simply shushed him.

" **I thought he might have meant old Ben...do you know what he's talking about?" Luke asked his uncle. Owen grunted a negative, keeping his eyes down on his food. Luke sighed and tried again. "Well...I wonder if he's related to Ben..."**

" **That wizard's just a crazy old man," Owen said a little sharply, and Luke gave him a startled look.** Anakin, meanwhile, scowled. **"Now tomorrow I want you to take that R2 Unit to Anchorhead and have its memory erased. That'll be the end of it, it belongs to us now."**

" **But what if this Obi-Wan comes looking for him?" Luke asked as he poured himself a glass of blue milk.**

" **He won't. I don't think he exists anymore. He died about the same time as your father."**

 **Luke's reaction was more instantaneous than his reaction earlier to finding out the droids were part of the Rebellion. "** _ **He knew my father?**_ **"**

" **I told you to forget it," Owen said harshly.** Anakin's scowl darkened. How could this man keep such things from Luke, from Anakin's son—what right did he have? **Luke, surprised at the outburst and obviously upset at being denied information on his father, glanced at his aunt and uncle, looking much like someone who'd just been smacked on the hand and didn't understand why. "Your only concern is to prepare those two droids for tomorrow. In the morning I want them up there on the south ridge working on those condensers."**

 **Luke tried again at conversation. "I think those new droids are going to work out fine...in fact I've, ah...also been thinking about our agreement. About me staying on another season?" Owen gave Luke an odd look, but Luke took a deep breath and plowed onward. "And if these new droids do work out I want to transmit my application to the academy** _ **this**_ **year."**

" **You mean the next semester before the harvest?" Owen asked incredulously.** Anakin was really starting to not like his stepbrother. He understood perfectly where Luke was coming from, and he hated seeing these constant rebukes from Owen.

" **Sure, there's more than enough droids!"**

" **Harvest is when I need you the most! It's only one season more."** Owen seemed oblivious to it, but Anakin could perfectly see the expression on Luke's face. He was tuning out Owen's words, most likely the mantra of _I knew it; I'll never be free of this place_ running through his head. **"This year we'll make enough on the harvest that we'll be able to hire some more hands, and then...you can go to the academy next year. You must understand I need you here Luke."**

" **But it's a whole 'nother year,"** Luke replied in a voice so pitiful and forlorn it pulled at Anakin's heartstrings.

" **Look, it's only one more season—" Owen started, but Luke had finally had enough.**

" **Yeah, that's what you said when Biggs and Tank left," Luke responded bitterly, standing up from the table.**

" **Where are you going?" his aunt asked him.**

" **It looks like I'm going nowhere," Luke responded lowly. "I have to go finish cleaning those droids..."**

" **Owen, he can't stay here forever—most of his friends have gone! It means so much to him," Luke's aunt told Owen.** Anakin felt his respect of the woman grow. It looked like she understood Anakin's son far better than Owen did.

" **I'll make it up to him next year—I promise," Owen responded. Luke's aunt laughed softly.**

" **Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He's got too much of his father in him."**

 **Owen nodded slowly. "That's what I'm afraid of."**

The whirlwind of emotions that followed that short conversation wasn't just Anakin's; they were Luke's too. Luke sat back in shock in his seat on the other end of the couch, emotions warring inside of him ranging from fear to heartache to pride and even some gratitude. Anakin, however, couldn't even put a name to some of the emotions raging inside of him. Questions spun around in his mind at a dizzying rate, but he couldn't find the voice to speak them out loud. He had the feeling Luke had plenty of things he wanted to say as well, but he couldn't find his voice either.

Aria glanced at the two Skywalker boys and paused the movie with a sigh. "If you've got questions you might as well ask it now. This is my favorite musical piece out of the entire series and I don't want to be answering questions during it," she said with a shake of her head, though her tone was soft, like she understood that there were numerous emotions spinning around inside of them.

"Did my uncle know?"

Luke, surprisingly, had been the first one to ask the question, and his voice was a little strained and hushed. Aria sighed; never a good sign.

"Yes..." she answered quietly. "He knew...and he was afraid that you'd end up going down the same path...that's why he lied so much about your father and why he was always trying to keep you on the farm...and why he kept Obi-Wan away from you to the best of his abilities."

Luke—looking a little pale—sat slowly back in his seat, processing the information. Anakin, however, kept his comments to himself. Aria's explanation had served as an answer of sorts to Anakin's questions as well. Owen's actions were his way of protecting Luke, though Anakin hated how he was doing it.

Aria waited expectantly for Anakin to speak, but he never did. He stayed where he was, stewing inwardly at what he had witnessed. Aria shook her head.

"It's not healthy to keep all of that in, Anakin," she said softly.

 _Look who's talking_ , Anakin thought sharply, though the words had just flashed across his brain when he immediately took them back. That was harsh, and considering what he'd learned about his future self...he didn't even want to _think_ anything harsh about someone.

"You've already answered my questions too," Anakin finally said tersely, eyes riveted to the screen. Aria shook her head, but let the movie continue. Anakin listened to the score she'd said was her favorite half-heartedly, watching Luke gaze wistfully over the dunes towards the setting twin suns. On the other end of the couch, Aria visibly relaxed listening to the peaceful dips and powerful swells of the music, humming along with it occasionally.

* * *

" **No, my father didn't fight in the wars, he was a navigator on a spice freighter."**

Anakin went into shock hearing Luke's words, but what Obi-Wan said next was the last push.

" **That's what your uncle told you. He didn't hold with your father's ideals, thought he should have stayed here and not** _ **gotten involved**_ **."**

" _What_?" Anakin thundered so suddenly Padme jumped. Aria was quick to pause the conversation on the screen.

"And this is why we don't bottle things up," she said with a sigh, turning to Anakin, who was sputtering indignantly, unable to put coherent phrases to how he felt at the moment.

"He told...ideals...not get involved...who does he..." Anakin sputtered, bordering on angry. Aria immediately moved to diffuse the situation.

"Trying to keep him safe, let me remind you...though even I don't agree with the way he went about it," Aria admitted begrudgingly. "But he was doing what he thought was best to protect Luke."

"I'm right here you know," Luke muttered. Aria placed a hand on his knee.

"Yes, I know you're right here, but right now I'm explaining things to Anakin," she said softly.

"But how could he—" Anakin started angrily again, but Aria cut him off.

"It was obviously hard enough to keep Luke on Tatooine without telling him about his Jedi heritage. Obviously he felt the lie was needed to keep him safe. Yet again, everything Owen did, as much as I disagree with it, was to protect Luke." Anakin was tempted to throw his hands up in the air in exasperation, but Aria continued. "Now, Obi-Wan is about to say some things about you that _I want you to hear_ , so calm down," she snapped, though she didn't say it in a harsh way; more like a gentle scolding, or a kind rebuke.

Anakin scowled, but complied, sitting back in the chair with a few unintelligible grumbles. Aria shook her head and continued the movie.

" **You fought in the Clone Wars?" Luke asked Obi-Wan.**

" **Yes...I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father."**

 **Luke looked down, suddenly very mournful. "I wish I'd known him..." Luke whispered.**

" **He was the best starpilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior. I understand you've become quite a good pilot yourself," Obi-Wan said with a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. He leaned back, looking far away towards something only he could see. "And he was a good friend..."**

Obi-Wan looked rather...embarrassed. Anakin made sure to remember every detail and commit it to memory, vowing to never forget this rare occurrence, or the high praise he'd never thought he'd hear from Obi-Wan Kenobi concerning himself. Aria, however, put the icing on the cake.

"I believe you used the words, 'my brother,' once," Aria said to Obi-Wan, and suddenly Obi-Wan's cheeks flared a bright red.

Before anything could be said—before Anakin could sincerely thank Obi-Wan for statements he had not yet made, really—the scene continued in front of them.

" **Which reminds me...I have something here for you," Obi-Wan said, shuffling to the other side of the room. "Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough...but your uncle wouldn't allow it...He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade, like your father did."**

" **Sir if you'll not be needing me I'll close down for a while," 3PO interjected. Luke nodded.**

" **Sure go ahead." Luke stood up, approaching Obi-Wan. "What is it?"**

" **Your father's...lightsaber," Obi-Wan said slowly, handing the weapon to Luke. "This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster—"**

 **Obi-Wan was interrupted as Luke ignited the blade, swinging the weapon around experimentally. However, Obi-Wan continued on. "An elegant weapon for a more...civilized age. For over a thousand generations the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times...before the** _ **Empire**_ **."**

 **Luke deactivated the lightsaber, sitting down next to Obi-Wan. "How did my father die?"**

The on screen Obi-Wan rocked nervously in his seat, and Anakin immediately spoke. "You did not..."

The present Obi-Wan looked at him, confused. "What, what are you talking about?"

 **The Obi-Wan on the screen continued. "A young Jedi named Darth Vader—who was a pupil of mine before he turned to evil—helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights...he betrayed and murdered your father." Luke looked down, an unreadable, deep emotion etched on his face as he processed the fact his father had been betrayed and murdered by someone he'd known. "Now the Jedi Knights are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force..."**

" **The Force?" Luke asked.**

Anakin stood up, unable to take it any longer. Aria didn't bother to pause this time as Anakin finally let out some of his frustration. "Why would he—you—future you, however you say it, whatever it is, say that? Why would you...that pits him against me automatically, and he doesn't even realize...and he doesn't even know what the Force is?" Anakin cried out in exasperation. Aria leaned over to the stunned Luke, who sat dumbfounded over his father's outburst at all the lies Luke had been circled with growing up and his lack of knowledge of the Jedi Order.

"I haven't done anything," Obi-Wan said defensively. "And I'm sure there's a reason for all of this."

"There is," Aria said quickly, glancing at everyone pointedly. "There is a reason for what he said, just as there is a reason for how Owen went about everything. Obi-Wan felt that it was better to let Luke retain the good memory of Anakin and wait until Luke was ready for the burden of the truth to tell him the truth. I believe Obi-Wan put it as what he said was true from a certain point of view. Either way, once again, he was just protecting Luke."

Anakin made a strangled sound of exasperation. "Well they did a poor job of it."

Now Aria was standing. "We might not agree with the how, but they did a wonderful job at keeping Luke safe from the Empire," Aria said sharply. "Nineteen full years before the Empire caught up. They did just fine. Now, do I already have to shut this off, or are we going to sit down and finish the movie? You're the one who wanted to watch it so bad, you wanted the answers; well now you're getting them."

Anakin shook his head, wilting as he sat down next to Padme. "I don't want any of this to happen..." he said weakly, burying his head in his hands.

Aria sighed, shoulders drooping. "None of us do. That's why we're here, remember?"

That was why they were here. They were going to change this.

They had to.

* * *

" **If they traced the robots here, then they'll have learned who they sold them too and that would lead them back...** _ **home**_ **!"**

"Excuse me," Luke said abruptly, standing up from his seat on the couch and shuffling away hastily. He didn't have any desire to see this again; this part he could do without.

As quietly and inconspicuously as he could, Luke navigated through the ship's halls to see if he could find a caf machine. He was certain there was one on here, and he needed some sort of an excuse for the sudden exit.

Eventually, Luke found one on the other side of the ship in the small kitchen area, though by then his hands were trembling and it was taking too much effort to keep himself from thinking of that terrible day when he'd found his aunt and uncle…

 _Don't think about it_ , Luke thought vehemently while making a caf, trying and failing to steady his trembling hands as he pushed the memories back that kept slipping to the front of his mind. The burning house…their twisted, charred remains…that roiling in his gut that this was _his_ fault and that he should have been there, that he could have done _something_ …

Luke started to pour the drink into his cup, but his hands had a particularly violent tremble go through them and he spilled the piping hot drink all over his hand, causing him to yelp, jerk in surprise, and reflexively drop the cup.

"Blast it!" Luke cursed as the cup shattered against the floor and his chest and stomach burned from the hot liquid that had now soaked his white shirt as well. He shook the caf off his hand, looking for something to clean up the mess.

He hadn't even taken a step before a gentle hand was laid on his shoulder and he felt a towel pressed against his abdomen. "Here…"

Startled, Luke looked up to see Aria standing beside him, gently dabbing at the caf mess on his shirt. She smiled to herself, eyes fixed on the stain she was attending too. "Some people can pull off stains; I think you can too, but I _don't_ think you want to keep a shirt on with a giant brown stain on it," she said humorously.

"Thank you," Luke muttered embarrassed as he held still while she cleaned him up. When his shirt felt like it was as good as it was going to get, he sighed. "I guess I should go change," he muttered, pulling at the edge of his shirt. Aria, however, gently grabbed his hand, raising the trembling fingers up for both of them to see.

"Unbuttoning is going to be a frustrating pain with how much your hands are shaking," Aria pointed out, much to Luke's further embarrassment. "You might want someone else to help so it'll get done faster or you'll be in there for the rest of the movie."

Luke shook his head. "No, I can dress myself," he protested, feeling a blush start to burn its way up to his cheeks.

Aria snorted. "I know you can do plenty yourself; it's not a bother, really. I won't peek, I promise," she said with a small smile. Luke was comforted by the fact she was starting to blush as well; she really did just want to help, that was all. Luke gave her a slow nod.

"All right then," he muttered, carefully sidestepping the caf mess on the floor.

"Don't worry about that, we'll clean it up after you're in a clean shirt again," Aria reassured him as they made their way towards the room they shared.

"How'd you know I was back there?" Luke asked as they navigated through the freighter's halls. Aria suddenly looked rather bashful.

"I, ah, knew why you were headed back there, so I followed to check up on you and make sure you were all right," Aria admitted, opening the door and stepping into their room the next moment. Luke shut the door behind them and she gestured for him to come closer. "All right, come here…"

It didn't stay silent for long as Aria began with the bottom button and started to easily make her way up, keeping her eyes glued to each individual button as she spoke. "So...Anakin did some snooping on my laptop before the movie...and he found out some things I was hoping he wouldn't stumble across. I was going to break the news to him little at a time, not all at once like he just got because of his snooping."

"What did he see?" Luke asked, watching her fingers nimbly slip each button out of its place on the shirt.

"He saw...a little bit of his fall, a part I never wanted him to find out about. He saw his mother's death, and his death, and he saw..." Aria hesitated, her hands pausing on one of the buttons for a moment before she continued. "One of your closer-cut, near death experiences. Needless to say, he's a little shaken right now."

Luke nodded solemnly. "I was wondering what had happened. It's hard to miss when he's acting off."

Aria snorted. "Tell me about it."

She reached the top button just below his collar and turned away as soon as she'd slipped it free, averting her eyes as Luke's shirt fell completely open and exposed him. She kept her back to him as he started to remove his shirt and look for a fresh one.

"Do you know how you're going to handle it?" Luke asked vaguely. He wanted to see just how prepared she was for things like this, especially since it wasn't just _Anakin's_ future she was meddling with, but _all_ of their futures.

Aria sighed. "I'm going to explain things to him...the best that I can. And I'm going to tell him how we're going to change some of those things. His mother is the most immediate thing right now, so I'll assure him about that one first." She sighed again. "But let's not worry about that right now, okay? Right now it's supposed to be a nice movie night and no one should be worried about anything."

"I suppose you have a point," Luke muttered, taking a stab at buttoning the black shirt he'd grabbed. His hands were still trembling, though not as bad now. Still, it was proving frustrating to try and stay steady enough to put the buttons through the holes, just like Aria had predicted. He let out a small sound of frustration, and Aria was there the next moment, taking the two sides of the shirt in her hands and starting to button his shirt.

"You know I don't mind helping you," Aria said with a small smile, this time keeping her eyes level with his eyes as she buttoned his shirt. "I'm here to help anyway."

"I don't think you had dressing me in mind when you started on this crazy mission to alter the future," Luke said with a smile, earning a laugh from Aria. He focused on the curve of her lips when she smiled and the way the light hit her gold-blonde halo of hair to try and distract himself from her warm fingers brushing against skin.

"Yes, well, I'll admit I didn't think I'd be doing this. I didn't expect us to come to this timeline either; I thought we were going to end up in theirs...makes you wonder why we're here, because I'm sure the Force has a reason," Aria said in a low, even tone.

"Well...I thank you for helping, nevertheless," Luke said softly, watching her expression carefully as she moved down the line with his buttons. Aria shrugged—a little half-shrug.

"It's nothing any decent person wouldn't do. I just want to help as much as I can while I'm here," Aria said softly. She put the last button through and smiled at him, smoothing down his shirt. "There; good as new."

"We should probably go clean up that mess." Luke fixed the sleeves on the shirt, tugging them down so that they weren't all bunched up anywhere. Not for the first time simply today, Aria surprised him, this time by trapping his artificial hand in her own. Luke pushed down his apprehension that she'd taken his prosthetic hand instead of his flesh hand and instead directed his attention back to Aria's eyes. Her finger, meanwhile, traced back to the spot where flesh met metal, and he was impressed with how gentle she managed to be.

"You know...it's nothing to be ashamed of," she said seriously, tapping that invisible line between synthskin and real skin. Luke shifted uncomfortably, but he had the feeling she wasn't going to let him slip away until she'd said her piece of mind. "There's nothing wrong with this at all. Force, Anakin got one himself the same way, and it saved his life and Obi-Wan's life probably many times, with one being at the front of my mind where Anakin grabbed onto a bundle of wires with his prosthetic and was able to support himself and two others, including Obi-Wan. Then again, his prosthetic was a little different. It went up to here," she said gently, slowly trailing a tender finger up to gently tap a spot right above Luke's elbow.

"What do you mean by the same way?" Luke asked, fighting to keep his voice even. Aria gave him a very small smile.

"I mean he rushed to face a Sith Lord alone despite Obi-Wan's warning and it ended up costing him," she said, shaking her head before she let her hand trail back to his prosthetic, turning his hand over in her own a few times over with tender care. "Besides, I've never seen anything wrong with the prosthetic hands; I actually find them rather…appealing, I think is the word I'm looking for. Now, you could think of them as a constant reminder of where you went _wrong_ , or you could think of a prosthetic as a sign you're a survivor, that you're experienced, and that you got away with much more then you could have. It could have been your life you lost, not just your hand. Next time someone goes to shake your hand and you think they've noticed it's a prosthetic, don't react. Just square your shoulders and look them in the eyes, don't pull away early; it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Her thumb rubbed soothing circles against the synthskin as she spoke, her voice comforting Luke as well. When she finished speaking she held his flesh hand up for him to see. "Look," she said with a smile. "No shaking…should we go clean up that caf mess now?"

Luke cleared his throat as she released his hand, subconsciously rubbing his wrist. "Yes, we probably should," he said softly, taking the lead as they headed back to the scene of the crime. Luke had to allow himself a small smile. She'd managed to cheer him up and calm him down, and she didn't even have to bring up what was bothering him in the first place. She also managed to address something Luke had thought he'd kept pretty well hidden.

When they returned to the small kitchen area in the back of the freighter, Aria was quick to start picking up the shattered remains of the caf cup. Luke silently recovered the towel from earlier to start cleaning up his mess, working alongside her in peaceful quiet. Once the last drop of liquid and the final piece of the shattered cup was taken care of, Aria finally broke the silence.

"They must be wondering if we got sucked out of the airlock or something by now," Aria said with a smile, pulling out a new cup and handing it to him. Luke returned the smile, moving to make another attempt at getting himself a caf.

"I think they can wait in suspense a little longer," he said mischievously, earning a laugh from Aria.

"They might end up doing a search party," she said with a shake of her head, leaning against the counter beside him. "Heaven knows Anakin worries more than an obsessive mother."

Luke snorted. "Should I be worried about that?"

Aria rolled her eyes. "I don't know...it depends on if you like the overprotective thing. I personally don't mind, it means they care...so long as it doesn't get creepy," she said with a shrug.

Luke's smile softened. "Yeah...there's a fine line between protective and being an obsessive stalker."

Aria watched as Luke successfully finished making his cup of caf, smiling to herself. "Shall we rejoin the others, or let them worry a little longer?"

Luke chuckled softly. "We should probably go back."

Aria gave a mock sigh. "Fine, if we have to. I'll go if you say we need to..."

Luke rolled his eyes, straightening up and already heading towards the door. "You sound so enthusiastic..."

* * *

Obi-Wan looked up from his seat on the couch as Luke and Aria emerged from the back of the ship, Luke carrying a cup of caf in one hand. "There you are; we were beginning to worry about you two," he quipped, eyebrows raising as he took in the fact Luke was wearing a different shirt. However, he didn't comment.

Aria did a little dance. "The cantina scene. I knew where you were when I heard the music halfway down the hall—you're not going to get me to shut up for the rest of the day now, I'm sorry. This song gets stuck in my head way too easily."

"It didn't take long for someone to try and pick a fight with you; does trouble normally follow you wherever you go?" Anakin suddenly asked, directing his comment towards Luke. Luke shrugged.

"Normally. It's almost always like this," Luke replied, taking his seat once again.

Anakin snorted. "Good, it's not just me."

Aria slapped Obi-Wan's shoulder gently. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, what is it with you and severed limbs? I can name…let's see…six off the top of my head, just from the movies."

Obi-Wan, much to everyone's apparent amusement, shrugged nonchalantly. "It happens."

" **Han Solo. I'm captain of the** _ **Millennium Falcon**_ **. Chewie here tells me you're looking for passage to the Alderaan system."**

Beside Aria, Luke suddenly had a flicker of a pained expression cross his face, and he stiffened. Much to Obi-Wan's curiosity, all Aria had to do was gently place a hand on his leg to calm him down, and the pained flicker was gone as quickly as it had appeared. Obi-Wan frowned; they'd definitely missed something. Something must have happened between the two while they'd disappeared. Obi-Wan turned back to the screen.

" **Yes indeed...if it's a fast ship," Obi-Wan said.**

" **Fast ship? You've never heard of the** _ **Millennium Falcon**_ **?" Han Solo asked. Obi-Wan's eyebrows rose slightly at his tone of voice.**

" **Should I have?" Obi-Wan asked.**

Anakin snorted and rolled his eyes.

" **It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs." At the look Obi-Wan gave him, Han continued boasting. "I've outrun Imperial Starships. Not the local bulk cruisers mind you, I'm talking the big Corellian ships now. She's fast enough for you, old man. What's the cargo?"**

 **Obi-Wan smiled. "Only passengers; myself, the boy, two droids...and no questions asked."**

 **Han laughed. "What, is it some kind of local trouble?"**

" **Let's just say we'd like to avoid any Imperial entanglements."**

" **Well, that's the real trick, isn't it; and it's going to cost you something extra. Ten thousand—all in advance."**

" **Ten thousand?" Luke asked incredulously. "We could almost buy our own ship for that!"**

" **But who's going to fly it kid? You?" Han asked mockingly.**

" **You bet I could, I'm not such a bad pilot myself," Luke said sharply before turning to Obi-Wan and starting to rise. "We don't have to sit here and listen—"**

 **Obi-Wan cut him off with a wave of the hand, gesturing for Luke to sit down.**

Obi-Wan leaned back, studying the screen with an amused expression. "They're so much alike it's scary," Obi-Wan muttered. Aria snorted.

"I know, right?" she said with a grin. Luke gave her an odd look, and Obi-Wan guessed that any comment about Luke being like Anakin was going to result in conflicting feelings for the youth, considering the fact Anakin had...had become Vader.

That was still something Obi-Wan was trying to cope with. He made a mental note to ask Aria later if what she'd mentioned back on Earth about bad things happening when Anakin's mother died had anything to do with Anakin becoming Vader.

He had a feeling it did.

" **We can pay you two thousand now...plus fifteen when we reach Alderaan," the Obi-Wan on screen said. Han and Luke both looked at Obi-Wan like he'd grown three heads.**

" **Seventeen?" Han asked, shocked. When Obi-Wan nodded, his expression was smooth once again. "Okay, you guys got yourself a ship. We'll leave as soon as you're ready, docking bay ninety-four."**

" **Ninety-four," Obi-Wan confirmed with a nod. Han looked up over Obi-Wan's shoulder, a frown curling the corners of his lips.**

" **Looks like somebody is beginning to take an interest in your handiwork," he murmured.**

"And I don't think the line 'Jedi business, go back to your drinks,' is going to work this time," Aria quipped. Anakin glanced at her.

"You know, that's still creepy," he said pointedly. Aria chuckled.

"Sorry, I can't help it, I'm used to referencing things," she told him, smirking. "And trust me, there's much worse jokes to be made; I'm just not that insensitive."

Anakin eyed her wearily. "That frightens me."

"It should."

"Shh!" Obi-Wan said suddenly, startling the two. "You two make it very difficult to watch this movie."

Aria blushed. "Sorry."

Obi-Wan turned back to the screen where an excited Han Solo was talking about the lucky job he'd just scored.

" **Seventeen** _ **thousand**_ **! Those guys must really be desperate. This could really save my neck; get back to the ship, and get her ready," Han was telling Chewbacca before the scene shifted back to Obi-Wan and Luke.**

" **You'll have to sell your speeder," Obi-Wan was telling Luke.**

" **That's all right, I'm never coming back to this planet ever again..." Luke responded.**

"Why do you Skywalker boys _always_ say that?" Aria muttered, shaking her head. She shut up when Obi-Wan gave her a sharp glare.

"Subtitles," Luke interrupted, and Aria blinked in surprise.

"Oh...right...crap...I forgot about that," Aria said with a blush. "Going somewhere Solo?" she interpreted the same time Han on screen replied.

" **Yes Greedo, as a matter of fact I was just going to see your boss," Han said bitingly as he was held at gunpoint, slowly sitting back down at the table he'd been leaving. "Tell Jabba that I've got his money."**

"It's too late, you should have paid him when you had the chance," Aria muttered in a low voice while the on-screen Greedo spoke.

"I didn't know that this happened," Luke muttered in response.

"Jabba's put a price on your head so large, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you," Aria continued. "I'm lucky I found you first."

" **Yeah, but this time I've** _ **got the money**_ **," Han stressed, staying relaxed.**

"If you give it to me, I might forget I found you," Aria whispered, trying to keep her tone low enough that she wouldn't disturb the others.

" **I don't have it** _ **with**_ **me; tell Jabba—" Han scoffed, picking at the wall and reaching for his blaster.**

"Jabba's through with you. He has no time for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of an Imperial Cruiser."

" **Even I get boarded sometimes," Han shot back sharply. "Do you think I had a choice?"**

"You can tell that to Jabba; he may only take your ship."

" **Over my dead body," Han said, suddenly very serious, his gaze sharp.**

"That's the idea; I've been looking forward to this for a long time." Aria cleared her throat. "Oh, and, as all Star Wars fans say; Han actually shot first."

" **Yes, I'll bet you have," Han said sourly. Greedo fired, Han moved out of the way, and then fired his own blaster.**

The group looked at Aria with odd expressions on their faces and she shrugged. "In the original, non-edited, non-bluray version, Han shot first. It's a rather controversial subject among the fans," she said sheepishly.

* * *

"Uhg...this part," Aria murmured, fiddling with her thumbs. "I hate this part."

Padme glanced at Aria, confused by the young girl's words. She glanced back at the screen where Tarkin stood before what looked like Alderaan.

" **We've entered the Alderaan system," an officer said as Princess Leia was led in with Darth Vader close behind her.**

" **Governor Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard."**

 **Tarkin laughed shortly, his gaze holding no humor. "Charming, to the last," Tarkin stated, taking Leia's chin in his hand. "You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life."**

" **I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself," Leia shot back.**

"She reminds me of someone I know," Anakin murmured low in Padme's ear for only Padme to hear. Padme smiled; Leia did sound a little like Padme taking a firm stand for her planet on several occasions.

" **Princess Leia, before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."**

 **Leia stared calmly back, her tone cool. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."**

" **Not after we demonstrate the power of this station," Tarkin shot back. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first."**

Several faces paled. "This isn't..." Padme asked faintly. Luke looked rather sick at his end of the couch.

"It is," Aria replied grimly. Padme felt Anakin's grip on her hand—their interlocked fingers hidden from sight of the other three—tighten. Anakin looked a little green, and Padme didn't have to guess why; Darth Vader was standing right there and watching the events unfold.

" **Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan," Tarkin continued onscreen.**

" **No! Alderaan is peaceful, we have no weapons, you can't possibly—" Leia cried out.** Down on the other end of the couch, Luke was tense and watching the screen with a mixture of horror and pain.

" **You would prefer another target—a military target—then name the system!" Tarkin cut her off. Leia looked up fearfully, at a loss of words and choking down whatever she had been about to say. Tarkin stepped closer. "I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time; where is the Rebel Base?"**

 **Leia stared at Alderaan over Tarkin's shoulder, conflicted, before she finally cast her gaze down to her feet. "Dantooine...they're on Dantooine..." she said quietly, her voice cracking.**

" **There; you see Lord Vader, she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation; you may fire when ready."**

" **What?" Leia cried.**

"What?" Padme echoed, her face draining of color as she, like Leia on the screen, sat bolt upright, a hand over her mouth in horror.

" **You're far too trusting," Tarkin said oily. "Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry; we will deal with your rebel friends soon enough."**

" **No...!" Leia begged, rushing forward to do** _ **something**_ **before Vader grabbed her shoulder and held her back, forcing her to watch.**

Padme was unable to tear her eyes from the screen, icy numbness flooding through her along with terror. Images flashed before her eyes of vacations to Alderaan with her family, the smiling faces of her friends Bail and Breha and their warm, kind hearts, the peaceful people of Alderaan that always made her feel so welcome, the beauty of the planet that reminded her of home on Naboo...

The green superlaser came to life, and suddenly what had been a lush green planet not moment ago suddenly became a fiery ball of debris. All of those people gone, just like that...

A sob escaped Padme, and she immediately turned into Anakin to hide her pain from the others. Anakin instinctively wound his arms around Padme, rubbing her back soothingly and whispering words of comfort even though his voice shook and his hands were trembling. His face was also drained of color, and though only the Force sensitives could sense it, horror and pain filled the space around them. Aria was similarly comforting Luke on the other end of the couch, gently rubbing his shoulder as he stared blankly at the screen in front of him. Obi-Wan sat frozen in place, staring much like Luke at the screen in front of him.

Padme shook her head against Anakin's chest, letting the action also wipe away her tears. "It's all right," he whispered. "It's all right..."

If it had been just a movie, that would have been easier to believe.

* * *

" **...Your destiny lies along a different path from mine," Obi-Wan told Luke, placing a hand on his shoulder and opening the door. "The Force will be with you...always."**

 **With that, he was gone.**

"Well that was foreboding," Obi-Wan muttered as the onscreen Luke shut the door behind the retreating onscreen Obi-Wan.

"Wait for it..." Aria commented while the Wookiee on the screen growled.

" **Boy you said it Chewie," Han said, leaning beside Chewbacca. "Where did you dig up that old fossil?"**

Anakin busted out laughing, and Obi-Wan scowled. "Not a word Anakin."

" **Ben is a great man," Luke reprimanded Han.**

Obi-Wan nodded at Luke. "Thank you Luke," he said, shooting Anakin a glare. Anakin didn't have any shame, and continued to laugh.

" **Yeah, great at getting us into trouble," Han replied.** Anakin laughed harder, and Obi-Wan's scowl deepened. Aria leaned over to Luke.

"I think we can all tell where Anakin stands on this," she muttered. "He's actually been keeping score of how many times he's had to rescue Obi-Wan."

" **I didn't hear you give any ideas," Luke shot at Han.**

" **Well anything is better than just hanging around waiting for him to pick us up," Han snapped back.**

" **Who do you think—" Luke started, though he cut off when R2 started to whir from his spot over at the computer terminal. "What is it?"**

" **I'm afraid I'm not quite sure sir; he says I've found her and keeps repeating she's here," 3PO said.**

" **Well...who? Who has he found?" Luke asked.**

" **Princess Leia."**

" **The Princess, she's** _ **here**_ **?"**

" **Princess?" Han asked, confused.**

" **Where, where is she?" Luke demanded.**

" **Princess; what's going on?" Han snapped, irritated at being ignored.**

" **Level five, detention block AA23. I'm afraid she's scheduled to be terminated," 3PO explained.**

" **Oh** _ **no**_ **! We've got to** _ **do**_ **something!" Luke exclaimed.**

 **Han was already avidly shaking his head no. "What are you talking about?" Han asked, well beyond irritated.**

" **The droids belong to her, she's the one in the message; we've got to help her!" Luke said in a rush.**

" **Now look, don't get any funny ideas, the old man wants us to wait right here—"**

" **He didn't know she was here—will you just find a way back into that detention block," Luke told 3PO as Han sat down.**

" **I'm not going** _ **anywhere**_ **," Han said with a shake of his head.**

" **They're going to execute her—look a few minutes ago you said you didn't want to just wait here to be captured, now all you want to do is** _ **stay**_ **?" Luke snapped at him.**

" **Marching into the detention area is not what I had in mind!"**

" **But they're going to** _ **kill her**_ **!"**

" **Better her than me!"**

"Is it always like this?" Obi-Wan muttered to Aria. Aria chuckled and Luke glanced at the pair, obviously listening to her response.

"With Han? Yes. Especially if you put Han with the Princess. Though Luke's obviously mellowed since this."

Obi-Wan nodded. It was rather hard to keep up with the young boy's fast paced speech; it reminded him a lot of the young Anakin.

 **Luke scowled, looking away for a moment before he turned back to Han, leaning in close to the older man. "She's rich."**

Padme sighed. "Of course...offer the smuggler money, and his tune changes..."

" **Rich?" Han asked. Luke nodded, a smile curling across his features.**

" **Mhm, rich, powerful—listen, if you were to rescue her the reward would be..."**

" **What?" Han asked sharply.**

" **Well more well than you can imagine!"**

" **I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit!" Han snapped back.**

" **You'll get it."**

" **I better!"**

" **You will!"**

" **All right kid, you better be right about this," Han said after a long pause.**

" **All right..." Luke said, clapping his hands together and looking around.**

" **What's your plan?" Han asked.**

"A Skywalker plan...they never go right," Obi-Wan muttered.

"Hey!" came an indignant reply from both Anakin and Luke.

"It's true!" Aria said. "They almost _never_ go right!"

"They do...sometimes..." Anakin said defensively.

"Sometimes, but more often than not they go wrong somehow in some way," Aria replied with a smirk. "However, I will give the Skywalker plans this; even when they go horribly wrong, eventually they almost always work."

* * *

" **Aren't you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?"**

"You know, it's kind of creepy to just stand there and stare at a girl," Anakin said, leaning over Aria to speak to Luke. Luke blushed at the comment.

"Look who's talking," Aria said, coming to Luke's defense surprisingly quick. She adopted a serious tone, switching between a scolding senatorial tone and a deep tone that was probably meant to mimic Anakin. " _Don't look at me like that. Why not? It makes me uncomfortable. Sorry milady_...you say you're sorry, but you're expression actually says something entirely different."

Anakin blushed a deep red, ducking his head low and mumbling something unintelligible. Aria crossed her arms over her chest and grinned. "I thought so; you have no room to talk." Luke was giving her a strange look, and she shrugged. "What? I'm just telling the truth; be glad this wasn't one that embarrasses you."

Luke rolled his eyes.

" **There isn't any other way out!" Luke cried out as blasterfire flew through the air between both the cornered party and the growing mass of Stormtroopers.**

"See, they go wrong," Aria quipped. Luke chuckled and Anakin shook his head.

" **I can't hold them off forever!" Han shouted. "Now what?"**

" **This is some rescue; you came in here and you didn't have a plan for getting out?" Leia asked snarkily at Han.**

" _ **He's**_ **the brains sweetheart!" Han snapped.**

" **Well why didn't—" Luke started to say, but Leia shocked him into silence when she suddenly ripped his blaster from his grip and fired a hole in the grate next to Han.**

" **What the** _ **hell**_ **are you doing?" Han screamed at her angrily.**

" **Somebody has to save our skins," she snapped back, stepping over to Han's side. "Into the garbage chute flyboy," she shouted, tossing the blaster back to Luke before sliding into her opening.**

"I like her," Padme announced, nodding in approval.

"You and many, many, _many_ other people," Aria told her with a smile.

" **Get in there," Han said. Chewbacca roared at him, and Han's cranky mood spiraled lower. "Get in there you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell! Get in there and don't worry about it!" Han shouted, kicking Chewbacca into the chute.**

" **Wonderful girl!" Han shouted to Luke. "Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her! Get in there!"**

* * *

"Putting the Princess and Solo together seems like a dangerous thing," Anakin quipped.

Aria chuckled, although it was a little weak. "It does serve to produce a lot of bickering, yeah, I'll give you that."

Luke and Anakin both frowned, catching her tone of voice much faster than the other two. "Are you okay?" Luke asked her quietly.

His question was answered—indirectly—the next moment.

" **I've been waiting for you Obi-Wan...we meet again, at last."**

Everyone in the room tensed, and all eyes riveted to the screen where Darth Vader and Obi-Wan were now standing face to face.

" **The circle is now complete; when I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the master," Vader growled.**

" **Only a master of evil, Darth," Obi-Wan replied calmly, his blue eyes steely as they began their battle.**

"When did you become so eloquent?" Obi-Wan asked, taking a stab at humor but failing because of the strain in his voice. Everyone was uneasy, watching the fight with growing apprehension and discomfort. It was worse for Obi-Wan and Anakin.

" **Your powers are weak, old man," Vader hissed.**

" **You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine," Obi-Wan replied intently.**

"When did you become so dramatic?" Anakin poked back at Obi-Wan. He was a little more successful at keeping an even tone, though it still faltered near the end. It was also difficult to overlook the wide eyes and his rigid posture, complete with clenched fists.

" **You should not have come back," Vader threatened, and their deadly duel resumed.**

 **The scene shifted, and Han and Chewbacca hugged the wall, peering at the** _ **Falcon**_ **from around the corner.**

" **Didn't we just leave this party?" Han asked. Chewbacca howled softly and Luke and Leia appeared behind them. "What kept you?"**

" **We, uh, ran into some old friends," Leia said, breathless.**

" **Is the ship all right?" Luke asked hurriedly.**

" **Seems okay if we can get to it," Han replied. "Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission."**

"Why does everyone call me old man?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Have you looked at yourself? You're old now in here, there's no denying it. You're old, white hair and all," Anakin replied. His voice was brittle, and it seemed almost everyone knew what was coming though everyone wanted to pretend like it wasn't. Anakin was slowly turning paler, and Obi-Wan looked deeply disturbed.

" **Now's our chance, go!" Han hissed.** On the other side of the couch, Luke had a sharp intake of breath and went rigid.

" **Ben?" Luke whispered, shocked and curious as he skidded to a halt and started to walk forward, entranced by the lightsaber fight he was seeing. Luke rushed forward, eyes widening as he took in what was happening. Obi-Wan saw Luke watching, looked back at Vader, and smiled, starting to lower his defenses.**

"What are you doing?" Anakin suddenly said, much more rigid than Luke was as he sat up straight, panic rising in his voice. "What are you doing? Obi-Wan, _what are you doing_?"

 **Obi-Wan went completely still, eyes closed, waiting...and Darth Vader saw his opening...**

"Don't! What are you doing, no, don't do it!" Anakin suddenly shouted, his eyes wide and staring frozen in horror at the screen.

Obi-Wan jerked on the couch in shock as the red blade cut right through his onscreen self and he disappeared into nothing.

" _No!"_ Anakin shouted in sync with the onscreen Luke, his distress and grief soaking the room all around. Padme had a restraining hand on Anakin's shoulder, Luke had his eyes averted from the screen to avoid looking at it, Anakin and Obi-Wan were both in shock, and Aria was fighting the urge to click off the movie. Nobody seemed to care about what was going on anymore, the events on the screen passing in a blur while everyone recovered from the events on the screen. Anakin was deathly pale and shaking, Obi-Wan was obviously deeply disturbed but using his Jedi teachings to calm down again, and Padme was pale and trying to bring Anakin back to himself. Luke, looked worriedly at the three, and when he looked at Aria he knew she felt just as helpless as to what to do. There wasn't really anything that could be done except to keep watching. Things were about to get better, and they obviously needed the good news.

Anything would be better than what they had just seen.

* * *

" **I'm hit, but not bad; R2, see what you can do about it. Hang on back there!"**

The death onboard the Death Star had been momentarily forgotten, as now everyone found themselves pulled in and fixated on the space battle in front of them. Right now, anxiety was running high as the onscreen Luke found himself pursued by a TIE and already taking hits.

" **Red Six, can you see Red Five?" someone asked.**

" **Red Five, where are you?" Someone else asked.**

" **I can't shake him!" Luke shouted, the first signs of panic and strain showing in Luke's voice.**

Anakin was rigid, taking in the scene with sharp eyes and with hands twitching to curl around imaginary ship controls and pilot some unseen ship. "Cmon..." he muttered, trailing off on a string of mumbled commands. Luke recognized some of the things his father was muttering on his end of the couch, though it seemed Anakin was mumbling both commands for the onscreen Luke on how to evade the TIE and commands for how he would take down the TIE.

" **I'm on him Luke—hold on," Wedge said calmly, focused on Luke's X-Wing.**

" **Blast it Biggs, where are you!" Luke cursed as the TIE nearly blew Luke to smithereens.** Anakin continued to have a conniption on his end of the couch, and it was obvious he wanted to jump through the screen, commandeer a ship, and join the fray.

 **Suddenly Wedge came out of nowhere, blasting the TIE to scrap metal. Luke let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Wedge..."**

" **Red Leader, this is Gold Leader; we're starting our attack run."**

"I'm going to have heart problems by the end of this," Padme murmured, leaning into Anakin's arm as she stared at the screen. It was nerve-wracking seeing her son in such a perilous situation, in a firefight for the first time in his life.

" **Stay in attack formation," Vader said on the screen, now in a fighter of his own.**

Anakin paled. "Oh no..." he muttered, feeling nauseous as he watched Vader join the fray. He'd been critiquing their flying this entire time, and if he was finding the holes in their form then Vader was sure to slaughter them. Anakin didn't know if he wanted to keep watching now; Luke was still in the air, and Vader still didn't know who he was.

" **I'll take them myself; cover me," Vader said sharply.**

" **Yes sir," one of his wingmen responded. Not seconds later, Vader shot down the first of the three Rebel Ships in the trench. He was quick to target the next one.**

" **It's no good, I can't maneuver!" the targeted Rebel cried out.**

" **Stay on target," Gold Leader said firmly.**

" **We're too close!" the Rebel replied, panicked.**

" **Stay on target!" Gold Leader said much more firmly.**

" **Loosen up!" the Rebel shouted.**

"Port! Port! Bank _left_!" Anakin shouted at the screen. The next second Vader shot down the Rebel and Anakin gave a cry of frustration.

" **Gold Five to Red Leader; lost Harry, lost Hutch," Gold Leader reported, and Luke looked down at the trench, studying the target. "They came at us from behind—" Gold Leader started to tell them before he was shot down and his ship erupted into a fireball. Luke looked away slowly, soaking in the fact that an entire group had just been taken out in less than a minute.**

Anakin leaned forward, showing all the stress of a pilot who wished they could be in the fray. He obviously had a plan on just how he would destroy the battlestation or at least keep Vader off of everyone's tails.

" **We've analyzed their attack sir, and there is a danger. Should I have your ship standing by?" an officer asked Tarkin.**

" **Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances," Tarkin scoffed.**

"Fool," Padme muttered. Aria snickered.

"Arrogant might be a better word, though fool fits him rather well too," Aria told her.

"Shh," Anakin shushed them, obviously annoyed. "Important fight taking place, remember?"

"Sorry," Aria said sheepishly, glancing at Luke and grinning. Luke rolled his eyes, returning the smile with a small one of his own.

" **Luke, take Red Two and Three; Hold up here and wait for my signal to start your run," Red Leader said.** Immediately, the group on the couch tensed. Luke's turn was coming up.

 **Red Leader licked his lips as everyone took up their positions. "This is it!" he called.**

" **We should be able to see it by now," one of Red Leader's wingmen said as they raced past the guns.** The guns went ominously silent again, and the tension in the room rose.

" **Keep your eyes out for those fighters," Red Leader commanded.**

" **There's too much interference," his wingmen replied. "Red Five, do you see them from where you are?"**

" **No sign of any—" Luke said before he suddenly broke off, eyes zeroing in on something only he could see. "Wait—coming in at point three five!"**

" **I see them," the wingman replied as Vader and his two wingmen arrived.**

" **I'm in range..." Red Leader muttered, pulling up the targeting computer. "Target coming up...Just hold them off for a few seconds..."**

" **Loosen formation," Vader commanded.**

" **Almost there..." Red Leader mumbled.**

Anakin cursed as Vader shot down one of the wingmen, earning a disapproving look from Obi-Wan and a startled look from Luke as the Huttese poured from his mouth before Anakin managed to stop himself and everyone could hear the movie again.

" **Almost there..." Red Leader repeated.**

" **I can't hold them!" the remaining wingman exclaimed seconds before he was shot down. The targeting computer sang a confirmation, and Red Leader let the torpedoes fly.**

" **It's away!" he shouted, pulling out of the trench.**

" **Is it a hit?" command asked.**

" **Negative," Red Leader replied grimly. "It didn't go in..."**

"Targeting computers aren't always the most accurate," Anakin muttered. "Some shots can't be made with a computer."

 **Vader was hot on Red Leader's trail. "Red Leader, we're right above you, turn to point...oh five, we'll cover for you!" Luke commanded.**

" **Stay there, I just lost my starboard engine," Red Leader replied. "Get set up for your attack run!"**

 **The next moment Vader fired again, striking Red Leader's other engine and sending the man careening to collide with the Death Star's surface in a ball of fire. Luke, who'd been watching, looked away sharply, struggling to come to terms with the fact that it was just his little group left.**

" **Biggs, Wedge, let's close it up. We're going in, we're going in full throttle. That ought to keep those fighters off our back," Luke commanded, taking the helm rather quickly.**

" **Right with you, boss," Wedge replied, and the trio descended for the trench.**

" **Luke, at that speed will you be able to pull out in time?" Biggs asked, concerned.**

" **It'll be just like Beggars Canyon back home," Luke responded calmly.**

"I don't know if I can watch this part," Padme muttered, her voice strained. Anakin was just as tense, eyes glued to the screen as he kept an eye out for Vader.

" **We'll stay back, far enough to cover for you," Biggs responded.**

" **My scope shows the tower, but I can't see the exhaust port. Are you sure you can hit it?" Wedge asked. Luke remained the picture of calm and focused, eyes fixed straight ahead. The turrents started to fire once again as the trio neared the exhaust port.**

" **Watch yourself! Increase speed, full throttle," Luke commanded.**

" **What about that tower?" Wedge asked, tense.**

" **You worry about those fighters,** _ **I'll**_ **worry about the tower!" Luke reprimanded him.**

"Priorities," Aria muttered under her breath. Luke gave her a look and she suddenly found a keen interest in the room around her, doing her best to look innocent.

" **R2 that...that stabilizer's broken loose again, see if you can lock it down," Luke said in annoyance, trying to focus on the trench in front of him and keep his ship steady.**

The guns became eerily silent again, and Anakin groaned. "Not again."

"Here they come," Obi-Wan muttered.

" **Fighter's coming in, point three!" Wedge called.**

 **The fighters closed in, and one of the wingmen opened fire, striking Wedge's starboard wing.**

" **I'm hit! I can't stay with you," Wedge cried out.**

" **Get clear Wedge, you can't do any more good back there!" Luke barked.**

" **Sorry!" Wedge replied as he pulled out of the trench.**

" **Let him go; stay on the leader," Vader snapped at his henchmen.**

"Leave the leader alone!" Anakin snapped at him, earning a few looks that he graciously ignored.

" **Hurry Luke, they're coming in much faster this time, I can't hold them," Biggs told him.**

" **R2, try an increase the power," Luke commanded, his voice revealing the strain he was under.**

" **Hurry up Luke—wait!" Biggs suddenly shouted.**

 **Biggs came into Vader's scope and Vader fired, sending Biggs up into a fireball like so many before him. Luke turned to stare forward again, shock settling into his features that his best friend had just been killed right behind him. Shock slowly faded into determination.**

" **I'm on the leader," Vader declared. Moments later, Luke pulled up the targeting computer, and the numbers dragged by seemingly too slow as Luke adjusted the computer several times.**

" **Use the Force, Luke," came the sudden disembodied voice of Obi-Wan. When Luke looked back at the targeting computer, Obi-Wan spoke again. "Let go, Luke!"**

"Think, don't feel," Anakin mumbled from his spot on the couch. "Trust your instincts!"

" **The Force is strong with this one," Vader muttered as he struggled to get a lock on Luke.**

" **Luke, trust me," Obi-Wan repeated, and Luke finally switched off the targeting computer.**

" **His computer's off," one of the command control technicians announced. "Luke, you switched off your targeting computer, what's wrong?"**

" **Nothing, I'm all right," Luke assured them.**

 **Vader adjusted his scopes, and fired, scoring a hit—**

"R2!" Anakin shouted, jerking and startling Padme. He was completely rigid, eyes wide and expression panicked.

" **I've lost R2!" Luke exclaimed.**

" **The rebel base is in range," a technician on the Death Star announced.**

" **You may fire when ready," Tarkin replied calmly.**

"I can't take the suspense anymore," Padme murmured, burying her face in Anakin's shoulder.

"C'mon Luke..." Anakin muttered.

"I think they've forgotten I'm right here," Luke whispered to Aria.

"I think so too," Aria responded.

"Don't you dare! _Don't you dare_!" Anakin started to shout as Vader's targeting computer locked onto Luke. "Don't you _dare_ shoot him down!"

"Anakin, Luke's right here," Aria told Anakin slowly. He seemed not to hear her.

" **I have you now," Vader declared.**

"No!" Anakin shouted as Vader took the shot.

 **Vader was interrupted as something suddenly took out his port wingman. "What?" Vader exclaimed, breaking concentration.**

" **Yahoo!" came a sudden cry of excitement, and Han Solo's face—and then the** _ **Millennium Falcon**_ **—filled the screen.**

" **Look out!" cried the remaining wingman, though his attempts to avoid Han's shot caused him to careen into Vader's ship, and Vader when flying off into the distance, his ship rolling at a dizzying speed.**

Anakin sagged into the couch, hand running through his hair. "Oh...oh...I've never been so relieved to see someone in my life," Anakin muttered, blood still pumping from the scare he'd just had.

" **You're all clear kid; now let's blow this thing and go home!" Han shouted. Luke took the shot and scored the hit, gasping in relief as he pulled sharply out of the trench.**

 **The technicians onboard the Death Star powered up the superlaser, ready to destroy the planet in front of them...**

 **...and the giant superweapon imploded, erupting in a dazzling display.**

" **Great shot kid, that was one in a million!" Han shouted, grinning from ear to ear. Luke, however, was still recovering from his near death experience, eyes closed as he took deep, steadying breaths and muttered silent thank yous to any deity listening—most likely to the Force. Obi-Wan's voice echoed from the screen again.**

" **Remember...the Force will be with you; always."**

* * *

Aria sighed, collapsing onto her bunk bed and running her fingers through her hair as she stared up at Luke's bed above her. "I'm seriously thinking twice about letting them watch Empire Strikes Back. That might not go over as well, and there was already plenty of panic attacks with this one."

Luke walked past her to set down the laptop and movie, having been the one to carry it; he'd insisted. He seemed rather pensive, and Aria sat up to study him closely. "Are you all right?"

"Hm?" Luke looked up and then shook his head. "Yeah, I'm fine, just thinking."

"About?" Aria asked curiously as he leaned against the bunk bed. Luke stared at his hands, looking much like the contemplative Jedi on Endor in that moment.

"It's just...seeing my parent's reactions to the life I've lived...seeing my father actually _care_ and take my side of things...it's something I thought I'd never see, and it gives me hope. It also makes me wonder what happened to Anakin to make him...Vader," Luke murmured. Aria sighed, shrugging off the medal ceremony jacket she was still wearing. She'd pulled the jacket so close to her watching the movie, proud to be wearing the very same jacket Luke had worn.

"A lot of bad things," Aria muttered, shaking her head.

Luke sighed, pulling himself up onto the top bed as he changed the topic. "Maybe I'll try and convince him to fly with Rogue Squadron while he's here."

Aria snorted. "You won't have to do much convincing. After that movie, he might just volunteer."

Luke chuckled. "Yeah, he might..."

Aria was silent for a few moments before she spoke again. "We'll be at Bonadan soon, right?"

"A couple of hours, yes. That's why Obi-Wan's staying up to keep an eye on the time until our arrival," Luke replied.

"Okay..." Aria said, stifling a yawn. Luke laughed softly.

"Get some sleep; you're going to need it for when we arrive."

"Yes sir, Commander," Aria mumbled back, pulling the blanket close to her as she snuggled into the bed.

Up above, Luke smiled at the ceiling. "Good night Aria."

"Night," she murmured. A few heartbeats later, a sleepy singing filled the cabin room as she nodded off and Luke closed his eyes, listening and letting her voice lull him to sleep...

"Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue; you must love me, dilly dilly, for I love you..." She trailed off for a moment, and Luke strained to hear the rest of what she was singing. "...we shall be safe, dilly dilly, out of harm's way...Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue...If you love me...dilly dilly...I will love you..."

Aria's voice trailed off and Luke smiled, on the edge of sleep himself as the words from not too long ago floated to the front of his mind, and he murmured them softly to himself. "...and the Angel of Music sings songs in my head...the Angel of Music sings songs in my head..."

He didn't know Aria was still barely awake below him, and she smiled to herself when she heard him, slipping gently into her dreams.


	13. Chapter 13: Arriving on Bonadan

_**Okay, this is another one of those connecting chapters. I plan on the action coming back in the next chapter, just had to get a lot of technical stuff out of the way. Oh, and someone said I still hadn't put Aria's eye color, so that's in there lol.**_

 _ **This took waaayyy too long...it was just writers block for about three days before i finally muscled past that. Dang that writers block. When i get it, its not because I don't know what I want to do, its because I don't know how I'm going to get there O_o**_

 _ **My brain hurts right now so I'm going to wrap this up now!**_

 _ **Thank you for your reviews, I love getting your opinions! I hope for more :D**_

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

Luke wasn't woken up by someone shaking him awake and telling him that they'd arrive, nor did he wake up on his own. Instead, he woke up when he heard a rather loud _thump_ and a great deal of thrashing right below him. Eyes flying open and leaping into a tense, at the ready position of sorts—as much as he could on a top bunk—Luke looked around for what had made the sound. To his confusion, he didn't see any intruder, and there was no warning coming to him through the Force.

Still, the sound persisted coupled with whimpers, and understanding dawned on Luke.

With a graceful movement, Luke landed on the floor, standing beside Aria's bed. The young girl was twisted up in her sheets, soaked in sweat, plagued by a nightmare that was apparently terrifying for her.

"Aria," Luke said loudly, putting a hand on her shoulder and shaking her gently. She didn't wake up, lost in her dream. He shook her a little harder, trying to wake her up again. "Aria!"

She remained asleep, and she was thrashing so violently Luke worried that she was going to end up hurting herself. Anakin's words about Aria's nightmares floated to the front of his mind, and he knew what he needed to do to calm Aria down.

 _Several nights it was so bad I had to get in the bed with her and hold her until she calmed down again._

Well, Luke didn't know what had suddenly triggered the nightmares, but at least he knew how to help her. Carefully, Luke caught her arms before she could hit him, holding them firmly in his grip as he crossed her arms over her chest, laying down beside her in the bed and pulling her close to him in a grip she couldn't get out of. She was still thrashing, but Luke held her tight enough that she wasn't going to go anywhere or accidentally hurt herself. Taking a deep breath, Luke closed his eyes and sought her presence in the Force, sending gentle waves of peace and calm into her conscious in an attempt to drive the nightmares away.

"It's okay...it's okay...you're safe," he murmured instinctively although she couldn't hear him. Gradually, her thrashing slowed, and her chaotic presence in the Force gradually mellowed. The tension in Aria's body slowly drained away, her whimpers fading into oblivion and replaced with deep, steady, peaceful breathing. As Aria relaxed into Luke, he stilled, unsure what to do now as he loosened the grip he'd had on her. One arm slid to rest over her midriff, while the other was trapped underneath her, her side resting on his bicep.

Well, now he couldn't move without waking her up. Luke figured he might as well get comfortable...

Sighing, Luke relaxed, shifting slightly in place to a more comfortable position and resting his head on Aria's pillow. A gentle hum rumbled from Aria's chest and the girl leaned back, her back now resting against Luke's chest. Luke blushed at how intimate the embrace seemed now, but took comfort in the fact that there was no one to see and assume anything.

Luke was finally starting to drift back to sleep again when Aria shifted restlessly, a faint whimper escaping her lips as the unease returned. Luke was awake once again, gently rubbing her arm and sending waves of comfort and peace towards her once again through the Force and sleepily humming that Angel of Music song she sang so much until she relaxed again, and Luke returned to his previous position with his arm around her midriff. It didn't take long for the eddies of sleep to claim him, darkness encroaching as he returned to the dream world. This time he wasn't woken up by Aria having a nightmare again.

* * *

Aria floated towards consciousness, feeling much more refreshed then she had in a long time. After that horrible repeating nightmare had finally gone away, she'd had the sweetest dream...

As Aria slowly came back to reality, she realized that she felt a little...warmer than she usually did curled up under blankets.

She was also pretty sure blankets weren't usually so heavy...nor did they breathe, normally.

Suddenly much more awake, Aria could feel that so called blanket take a shape, including an arm across her midriff and a chest against her back. She was also apparently lying on another arm.

Cracking her eyes open very slowly, Aria peeked down to confirm what she was feeling.

Yup, there was an arm draped across her middle, and not far from her face was a hand lying against the sheets. By now she had a pretty good guess who was in the bed with her, though the why still had yet to be answered. Very carefully, trying her best not to disturb her unexpected visitor, Aria turned her head to confirm her suspicions.

Sure enough, the owner of the arms was indeed Luke, who was curled up next to her and fast asleep. His chest rose and fell steadily, and he looked deceptively peaceful while he was asleep, golden locks falling gracefully into his face.

 _There's that fictional character crush coming back into play_ , Aria thought with a blush, looking away. Though it wasn't a fictional character crush anymore, was it, as apparently Luke Skywalker was very much alive and real.

And cuddled with her in the bed right now as well, awkwardly enough.

If they had been a couple in a relationship, Aria would have lingered as long as she could, but considering she'd just met him—knew a lot about him, yes, but still just met him—she started to carefully try and free herself from his embrace.

She didn't get very far before Luke started to wake up, his arm tightening around her middle as he shifted in place. A soft groan rumbled out of him before his eyelids fluttered open.

"Well good morning," Aria said as casually as she could. "I'm hoping you know the answer to this question or else this is going to become even more awkward. Why are we in the same bed?"

Luke sighed, taking a moment to wake up a little more and register her question before he finally spoke in a groggy tone of voice. "You had a nightmare last night; Anakin told me a while back he would hold you until you calmed down again, but you, ah, kind of trapped me in your sleep," Luke murmured. Aria could envision the blush that was undoubtedly creeping across his face—there was one heating up her cheeks as well.

"Oh..." she replied softly. "Well, ah...thank you...Luke."

"Of course."

There were several moments of awkward silent where they simply laid there before Aria decided to speak again.

"Ah...Luke?"

"Yes?"

"...you can let go now."

If he hadn't been blushing a few minutes ago, Aria was fairly certain that he was blushing now. The arm around her midriff was swiftly retracted, and the bed creaked as Luke rolled off of the bed.

"Right, sorry," he said, the embarrassment clear in his tone. Aria gently pushed herself upright in bed, stretching much like a cat and yawning.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," Aria reassured him. She didn't want his embarrassment lingering throughout the day over such a small incident. She had other things to worry about today.

Like Anakin...definitely Anakin.

* * *

Once more, Anakin had managed to find himself a quiet, private corner in the ship that their party was traveling in. His mind was abuzz with the many revelations of yesterday, and his head pounded with an overload of information.

The scary part was that he knew he'd only received a small part of the truth, a simple morsel of the knowledge that Aria possessed about their lives.

Yet the little he knew was nearly enough to scare him senseless.

He'd thought he hadn't been able to sleep beforehand with the nightmares of his mother, but now he was plagued by the images he'd witnessed when he'd snooped in Aria's laptop. Why did he have to look? Every waking moment he was plagued by images of himself hurting Luke and Padme and Obi-Wan.

 _Liar!_

 _I hate you!_

 _No!_

Anakin squeezed his eyes shut to try and dispel the memory, pinching the bridge of his nose and leaning forward in the pilot's chair. There wasn't much he could focus on now because almost every one of his good memories had been tainted by his revelations. He hurt—was going to hurt—Padme, he was going to kill Obi-Wan, he was going to become a Sith Lord, his mother was going to die in his arms, and his son...his son was going to grow up on a dustball planet and would hate it just as much as Anakin had, not to mention his son was going to lose everyone he held dear and be violently thrust away from the only home he'd ever known and thrust into a perilous galaxy after growing up an orphan.

Knowing all of that, there was no happy thought for Anakin to hang onto.

 _You haven't hurt them, okay? You haven't done them wrong in any way, you haven't done that, not yet, and we're going to make it so you won't, okay?_

Anakin sighed at the reminder of Aria's words. But how? How could things possibly be fixed? What had even happened in the first place to make things so terrible?

There was the quiet sound of feet scuffing the metal flooring, and Anakin turned around to see Aria standing in the cockpit entrance, hair mused and suggesting that she'd just woken up. She offered him a small smile and moved to stand beside him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"How are you?" she asked him softly.

"How do you think I'm doing?" Anakin asked her bitterly, turning his attention back towards the stars. "We'll be arriving soon, by the way. You should probably tell Luke."

Aria shrugged, taking the seat next to him. "He already knows; he calculated how long of a trip this was going to be. What I should be doing is making sure that you're okay before I focus on doing anything else."

"I'm not okay; I thought we already established that. How could I be okay?" Anakin asked sharply.

Aria sighed. "I didn't say you were okay right now, I said I was going to make sure you were; as in we're going to progress towards you being all right again."

Anakin looked away with a scowl. "Nothing you can say is going to make this better."

"Anakin, I've already said that what you've seen is all what could happen if you allow yourself to fall to the dark side. You are nowhere near a bad person right now; you're a good person, and you have a good heart."

"And what good did that do me in this timeline?" Anakin replied accusingly.

Aria shook her head. "You're in a position to make a difference. You know the consequences, and you know that you don't want any of this to happen, so now all you have to do is avoid the mistakes that Vader made; mistakes that I can help you realize. That's what I'm here for Anakin, is to help you stop all of this from happening. Just because you _could_ become Darth Vader doesn't mean that you're a bad person _now_."

Anakin buried his face in his hands. "Why did I hurt everyone I love? Why did I do this? It doesn't make any sense...I would never..."

"Whatever happens, Anakin, know that the dark side is never the answer. No matter how promising it may seem, all it will lead to is death and destruction. You lost everyone you cared about trying to protect them with the dark side."

Anakin looked up at her abruptly, surprise flashing across his face. "I hurt them to protect them? That doesn't make sense either."

"No, that's not what I meant. I meant that you were trying to protect them, but you felt that you were inadequate to help them, so you turned to the dark side when you were told it offered the power you felt you needed to protect your loved ones. However you became so consumed by the dark side you ended up losing everything. That's what happens. The ends don't justify the means when it comes to the dark side, and all it will do is take that which you hope to preserve."

"You know, you're rather strongly opinionated and knowledgeable for someone your age."

Aria smiled at him. "Not really. Your fall is just something that I've looked at so many times over I've found a lot of ways things could have gone differently, things that if you would have known them at the time would have convinced you not to fall...I just know this part of your life really well. That's why I seem smarter than I am. I'm still sixteen—almost seventeen—and I still have plenty to learn about life." Aria smiled. "I just know my Skywalkers extremely well."

Anakin smiled weakly. "Yeah...I suppose you do."

Aria gently patted his back. "Keep your loved ones close Anakin—you're going to need them."

Aria stood up to leave, but Anakin grasped her arm. "Aria...what if something goes wrong and I still fall? What then?"

Aria was still for several moments, genuine concern showing on her features. Anakin's mind was on Luke, and how he'd lived this long because Vader hadn't known he'd existed—but Anakin did. If he still went to the dark side, he would know his son was out there in the galaxy, and he was sure that he'd do everything in his power to find Luke.

Finally, Aria answered. "Then I'll do everything I can to make sure that we still manage to dodge the worst outcomes."

Anakin released Aria's wrist with a sharp nod. "I guess that's all we can hope for in that situation."

"All we can hope for is that more people make it out alive, and hopefully stay safe," Aria added softly. "We'll stop it from happening though Anakin. Now that you know what will happen, I have complete faith that you'll do what's right."

With that, Aria left the cockpit while Anakin continued to think about the grim outcomes of his future. However, this time he allowed himself to entertain the fleeting image of a complete, happy family instead of the scattered shards that remained in this timeline.

* * *

"We're coming up on Bonadan."

Aria peeked around to the front of the cockpit, eager to watch the stars bleed from a blur of blue to the dazzling kaleidoscope of space. Anakin was now in the co-pilot's chair while Luke was once again in the pilot's chair, focused on the task before him of flying the ship. Once they were out of hyperspace and among the traffic, Luke turned to Obi-Wan and Anakin.

"I know this is a weird request, but do you mind disassembling your lightsabers until we get through?"

Anakin frowned, but Obi-Wan nodded, already unhooking his lightsaber. "I think I know where you're going with this. Where do you want us to store the pieces until we're safely on planet?"

"They should be safe in my backpack until we're clear," Aria pitched in, straightening the backpack that was lying on the ground next to her. "Obi-Wan's can go in the front pocket while Anakin's can go in the main pocket."

Padme leaned forward. "When we see that rebel contact, I'd like to get a blaster. Just a small one is all I really need."

Anakin chuckled. "She's not kidding; that's all she needs to do some serious damage."

Luke smiled faintly, turning to the controls. "I'm sure we'll have plenty to do when we get on the surface, but we can go to the contact first. I'd like to get some protection before we go anywhere or do anything."

"You're not confining me to the ship or anything, right?" Aria asked with a note of sarcasm, a smile curling the corners of her mouth. Luke rolled his eyes.

"No, you're coming with us—just stay close, okay?" Luke warned.

"I'll be safe, don't worry," Aria replied with a wave of her hand. "Well...as safe as I can be hanging around two Skywalkers that attract trouble like magnets."

"I resent that remark," Anakin piped up with a slight scowl. Aria snorted.

"What, it's true! And I know exactly where Luke gets it because of it."

Once again, a slight air of awkwardness settled between Anakin and Padme, though Aria noted that this time it wasn't as bad as it had been earlier. They must have settled something...

Aria settled back into her seat, watching quietly as Obi-Wan and Anakin disassembled their lightsabers with the Force and put the pieces in their respective pouches before she turned her attention to the approaching planet. She marveled at the sight, feeling that she would never get used to approaching a planet by a spaceship. At least she sincerely hoped she would never get used to it; how could she possibly take advantage of something so wonderful?

Gradually, the stars around them bled into the blues of Bonadan's sky, and Luke was soon piloting them towards the docking bay they had been instructed to land at, with Luke taking great care not to deviate from the given course in the slightest. As the bay grew closer, Luke broke the steady silence.

"They're probably going to search us when we get off." He glanced at Aria pointedly. "There's nothing in that bag we should worry about, right?"

Aria frowned, leaning over and rifling through her bag. Yup, her Star Wars pajamas with the rebel alliance symbol sweats and the Darth Vader shirt were inside out and tucked at the very bottom with the Darth Vader shirt hidden in the sweats, and her Jedi Order water bottle was in a holder that hid the lightsaber symbol. Once she was sure that everything that would cause a fuss was carefully tucked away and hidden in some way (Anakin had hidden the Star Wars series and the Clone Wars series somewhere safe for Aria earlier) she turned her attention back to Luke. "I think we're good. And if not, I'm sure Obi-Wan can just mind trick them in the other direction."

Luke shook his head with a sigh. "Well, let's get this over with then," he muttered, landing the ship with well-practiced ease. Once he'd shut everything down, he stood up and led the way out of the ship. Right before he descended the ramp, Aria slung the backpack over her shoulder and Luke put his arm around her waist to pull her close to him.

That was right; she was posing as his girlfriend, like Padme was posing as Anakin's. Obi-Wan was the responsible chaperone for the group, which was supposedly stopping at Bonadan during a lengthy road trip.

Aria put her head on Luke's shoulder—for effect—as they went down the ramp together, Padme and Anakin behind them while Obi-Wan took up the rear. There was a handful of bored-looking guards waiting for them when they reached the edge of the ramp. One of the guards stepped up, and when he spoke his words were obviously rehearsed.

Well, Aria would take bored guards over Stormtroopers or any form of Imperials any day.

"We'll need to check your bag, persons, and ship for any weapons as this is a weapon free planet, any weapons found will be confiscated until your departure, at which time your weapons will be returned to you," the droned in a flat tone.

Aria smiled at him and shrugged off her backpack. "Of course," she said pleasantly, handing the backpack over and forcing herself not to cling to the bag. As two guards boarded the ship to look for weapons, the five were split up to receive a pat down, with Luke giving Aria a reassuring smile when no one was looking, which she returned.

The guard that gave Aria a pat down didn't even say anything—he just waved her on. So, Aria shuffled ahead and waited for the others to pass and for the guards to stop rummaging through her backpack. Luke was actually finished with his pat down as well before Aria's backpack got past the guards, and he wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning in to whisper in her ear.

"They're curious about the contents of your backpack," he muttered in a low tone. "They think the stuff in there is odd, but they don't see anything dangerous about the contents, so you should get it and everything inside of it back."

Aria smiled, leaning into him like he'd said something especially romantic to her as she replied. "Good; now I won't continue to have a nervous breakdown hoping that I'll get it back."

Luke snickered, but he didn't say anything else, and they fell into a comfortable silence as they waited on the others. Thankfully the awkward moment earlier hadn't ruined the comfort between the two, and Aria was able to enjoy the moment, humming softly to herself. She felt Luke's eyes on her as she hummed, but she didn't let it bother her. She picked a spot in the room and simply stared, zoning out as she hummed.

"What are you singing?" Luke eventually asked her softly as Obi-Wan and Padme came to stand by them.

In reply, she sang a few words for him softly so only he could hear. "If there's a prize for rotten judgment, I guess I've already won that. No man is worth the aggravation—that's ancient history, been there, done that. Oh, no chance, no way, I won't say, no, no. It's too cliché, I won't say I'm in love." Aria smiled at him, her blue and green eyes dancing. "It's one of my favorite kid's movie songs."

Luke's eyebrows rose in amusement as she returned to her zoned out stage, now singing the words out loud softly as she waited. "I thought my heart had learned its lesson...it feels so good when you start out. My head is screaming get a grip, girl; unless you're dying to cry your heart out, oh!"

After that she hushed, noticing that the guards were finishing with her backpack as Anakin approached, looking slightly annoyed. At Obi-Wan's questioning expression, Anakin muttered out his explanation. "I forgot about a vibroblade in my boot.

Aria shot him a look. "What were you doing with that?"

"I forgot it was there, all right?" Anakin said defensively, obviously anticipating some teasing. Aria simply grinned and didn't say anything about it, turning her attention to the guard that was approaching her and Luke.

"Here you go," the man said, handing her backpack over. He had an odd expression on his face, but Aria paid it no mind, giving him a pleasant smile.

"Thank you," she told him as she took the backpack back, slinging it over her shoulder before Luke turned her away and towards the city before them. She waited until the group of five was several feet away before she spoke again. "So where's this contact?"

Luke glanced around, taking note of several of the closest buildings. "He's meeting us in the alley between a...Greno's Cantina and Phtari Motel."

"Sounds like a wonderful place to get mugged," Aria quipped.

"We're not going to be mugged."

"Even if we were mugged, the mugger picked a horrible target, even if we don't have our lightsabers assembled on us right now," Anakin responded almost immediately.

"We know what his solution is," Aria said with a roll of her eyes. "Obi-Wan will negotiate them out of the alleyway. Padme...hmm..."

"A girl has her ways," Padme said with a sly smile, batting her eyelashes and causing Aria to laugh.

"It's up there," Luke suddenly said, pointing towards a sign that Aria guessed read Greno's Cantina. She could recognize enough of the letters instantly to decide that was the one in front of him, though it took her a moment to translate the rest. "On the other side of the cantina. They should be there waiting for us, we're on time."

Collectively, the group made their way to the alley, staying as inconspicuous as possible. Once they were within the safety of the alley's shadows, the cheery tourist façade disappeared as everyone focused on business. Luke did keep his arm around Aria, though she noticed it was in a protective manner now. A figure stepped out of the shadows and Luke instinctively stiffened, though he relaxed the next moment when the figure spoke.

"Commander Skywalker; right on time. It's an honor to meet you," came a woman's voice.

Luke nodded to the man, stepping forward. "Pleasure to meet you too. What do you have for us?"

"Over here," the woman said, keeping to the shadows and leading them further into the alley. Luke seemed perfectly at ease, and Aria trusted Luke, so she followed, sticking to Luke's side like a leech. He didn't seem to mind.

The woman led them into a room at the back of the cantina, opening a cupboard and a few drawers. "What do you need?"

Luke was the first to speak again. "You don't happen to have a DL-44 pistol, do you?" Luke asked, his gaze skimming over the large array of weapons. Aria was trying to figure out how the woman had got all of this past the security and kept them unaware.

"Specific taste I see—but a good choice nonetheless," the woman replied, digging in a drawer before she handed the weapon to Luke, who tucked it away without even looking at it, eyeing the rest of the selection. Aria, surprisingly, was the first to speak.

"Wait, is that a DC-17 pistol?" Aria asked in surprise, pulling away from Luke to eye the weapon. "Those were used in the Clone Wars, and I'm pretty sure they were never sold to the general public—at least not legally."

The woman shrugged. "You can still find them if you know where to look. I'm impressed you recognized it; I like a girl who knows her weapons."

Aria blushed. "I'm only familiar with a few," she murmured, taking the pistol as the woman handed it to her. Luke eyed her wearily, obviously hoping she didn't shoot anybody. He looked away sheepishly when she shot him an accusing look and muttered under her breath, "Oh ye of little faith."

Padme's eyes lit up when she spotted a specific gun, and she allowed herself a small smile. "That one," she said, pointing. The woman raised an eyebrow.

"The ELG-3A?" she asked, as if making sure as she pulled the weapon out. Padme took the weapon from her hand calmly, looking the blaster over.

"I happen to know from experience they're actually quite reliable," Padme responded. The woman shook her head and turned her attention to Obi-Wan and Anakin, though Obi-Wan was the one who spoke.

"We don't need anything. We smuggled our weapons in," Obi-Wan told her calmly. The woman's eyebrows raised, and it was obvious she was judging them.

"Suit yourself," she said, already packing up the blasters. "Though I was told to give each of you a vibroblade too, just in case."

The woman gave all five of them a vibroblade that all of them hid in their boots. Luke showed Aria a small inside pocket she could hide her blaster in inside of his medal ceremony jacket, and Padme slipped her blaster into her boot along with her vibroblade while Luke tucked his away behind his belt. They couldn't exactly wear their blasters in a holster on a planet where they were banned.

"Thank you for your help," Luke told the woman sincerely as he ushered the rest of them out the door.

"May the Force be with you, Commander," the woman replied.

"And with you," he responded, taking up the rear.

Aria sighed and stretched. "Where to now?"

"The hotel. We'll get settled in, I'll set up a meeting with the supplies dealer so we can figure out what he wanted, and we can start planning on how we're going to break out Teeb."

Padme surprised everyone by speaking next, and speaking on something no one had thought twice about. "I was thinking I could whisk Aria away to get her some new clothes so she'll blend in better after we were settled in." When Luke blinked in surprise, Padme smiled gently. "I don't think she's going to want to have to keep borrowing clothes from you."

"Right...right I forgot about that," Luke said, searching his pockets for a moment. "Madine actually did give me some money just for that...there it is!"

Luke pulled out a credit chip and handed it to Padme, who tucked it away safely. "That should be enough to get her something to wear...and buy a few meals for us while we're here, so don't use it all," Luke said with a small smile. Padme rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure we won't."

* * *

While the girls were out shopping for Aria, Luke, Anakin, and Obi-Wan got the chance to talk about Jedi things. More specifically, training Luke.

"So Luke," Anakin asked, once Luke had finally stopped and sat down on one of the beds. "Where do you want to start? Learning about Aria's English, Force Techniques...we should probably wait until you have a lightsaber to work on lightsaber combat."

"Aria and I already talked about getting me a new lightsaber. She already knows where we need to look," Luke informed him. "I'll probably get started on that after we try to rescue Han on Gall."

Obi-Wan nodded to show he understood. He was standing by the window, arms folded over his chest. "What about your Force technique—how are you progressing on that?"

Luke smiled, albeit a little bitterly. "Well I'm not struggling to move noodles on my plate anymore." Anakin snorted in amusement but didn't say anything, allowing Luke to continue. "I think I was getting along rather well before I left Dagobah, though I was still working on trusting in the Force and realizing just how much was possible through it."

"Was there anything else you were struggling with?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Size matters not," Luke told him, messing with his sleeves. "Though Master Yoda made quite an impression lifting my X-Wing out of the swamp."

Anakin pulled something out of his pocket, and Luke's eyes widened marginally in surprise when he realized that it was the paper that Aria had scribbled something down on as incentive for Luke. "I don't know Master...I think it's best to get the English lesson out of the way. It'll be easy enough, and done quickly."

"And what's that?" Obi-Wan asked with a small frown.

"Luke's incentive," Anakin said with a grin, tucking the paper away. "He doesn't get to see what it says until he's fluent in the language, that way he doesn't cheat."

Luke rolled his eyes, a blush creeping up his cheeks. However, it was Obi-Wan that spoke again. "Do you know where that paper is that she brought that has the English and Aurebesh lined up side by side? That will make this much easier."

Anakin shook his head. "I actually looked the other day and strangely enough I didn't see it. You would think that would be the one thing she would remember to bring."

Luke frowned at that, watching as Anakin crossed the room to rifle through the bag and pull out his lightsaber pieces before he handed Obi-Wan's pieces over as well. "So, how are we going to do this? Make our own chart like the one Aria had? Give him something to read for practice?" Anakin questioned.

"So I am being taught English first?" Luke asked to clarify.

"Yes," Obi-Wan said, looking around the room. "I wonder if there's some flimsiplast somewhere in this room..."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Why not just write on the back of one of Aria's papers? I'm sure she's got something to write with in there too."

Obi-Wan shot Anakin an accusing glare, but silently approached the backpack and fished out the required utensils, sitting at the desk inside of the hotel room to start writing while Anakin took up a spot on the bed to re-assemble his lightsaber. Luke lay back on the bed he was sitting on, staring up at the ceiling as he waited for Obi-Wan to finish writing. He closed his eyes after a few moments and subconsciously started to hum, a certain blonde girl crossing his mind. The words scrolled by in his mind, surprisingly retained even though he'd just heard the song last night.

 _Lavenders green, dilly, dilly, lavenders blue. If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you..._

Over on the other bed, out of Luke's point of view, Anakin smiled knowingly and didn't say a word.


	14. Chapter 14: Negotiations

_**YES! I FINALLY GOT OVER MY WRITER'S BLOCK! FINALLY!**_

 _ **You should actually get these updates more often now. I was having a problem with writers block, obviously, though I still have a problem with time. It won't be nearly as often I update as I would like, but you will be getting updates on this story again. As soon as I get over my writer's block for In The Thick of Battle, I'll be back to a steady flow of updates for all of my chapters.**_

 _ **As for why it's been taking me so long, it's my senior year and I'm laden down with scholarship applications, dual credit classes, regular homework, work, church, and now registration. But I am still getting my writing in at the same time!**_

 _ **So, knowing that its been a while since I wrote with this book and knowing I had to skim over the previous few chapters for a refresher, here's the next chapter, yay!**_

 _ **PLEASE Review, again I'm so sorry it took so long!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

Aria and Padme walked in companionable silence through the marketplace of Phtari for quite some time, dipping into their allotment of credits to buy Aria the clothes she needed to blend in. For a while they dabbled in small talk, nothing serious, but eventually the topics turned to more serious matters while they perused a small corner tent for a nice formal dress-just in case, as Padme had put it.

"So...I've noticed you tend to look at Anakin...with a twinkle I know all too well in your eyes," Padme said casually as Aria was judging whether or not one of the gold dresses was what she wanted.

Startled, Aria looked up to meet Padme's gaze. "What?"

Padme gave her a gentle smile, placing the gold dress back and offering a red one. "I'm not being accusing, it's just an observation. You like him, don't you."

Aria almost forgot that she had a dress in her hand. "Oh...uh...well...not that way, per say. It's more like a boy crush." She blushed. "I mean, just look at him!"

Padme laughed, which caused Aria to relax again. "Yes, he is handsome, isn't he? And thank you for being honest."

Aria shrugged. "Well, you know, even if it was more than a crush, you wouldn't have to worry about me making a move on him. He's yours, and without you two, well, as awkward as it may be for you right now, there would be no Luke without the two of you. I couldn't imagine a universe without Luke Skywalker."

Padme studied the young woman for a long moment, taking her time before she spoke. "Oh...so he's the one you actually like?"

Aria paused in picking a new dress off the rack, staring at Padme in shock. "I...well, I…" she deflated, knowing that whatever the expression on her face was currently, it gave away her true answer. "Well...yes. But I don't really know him, do I?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've read his entire biography on earth, yes, and I've watched those movies about the key points in his young life, but I can get all that second hand information all I want and that doesn't mean that I know him. Knowing about a celebrity doesn't mean you know the celebrity."

"You're getting to know him now, aren't you?"

Aria sighed. "Well, yes, I am, but-"

"But nothing. What you know already with what you're learning, what do you think of him?" she asked curiously.

"What about you and Anakin? How are the two of you handling things?" Aria deflected. Padme rolled her eyes, far from fooled. However, she still answered Aria's question.

"Well, it's understandably strange between us right now, trying to get the groundwork of a relationship when we both know that we're going to marry in the future. As nice as it is to know that we are willing to take that step in the future, it's...strange."

"I can see how it could be."

Padme shook her head. "Well, even with us knowing, we are making progress. I'm a lot more comfortable with him now, and knowing that we at least have Obi-Wan's...support, in a way, helps. I'm still hesitant about entering a relationship though."

Aria nodded. "Because of the entire Senator/Jedi/Forbidden thing...and the terrible outcome the first time. Though I'm just going to say, the relationship itself isn't what was wrong, in my opinion. The Emperor just worked off of the fact that he was afraid he was about to lose you and he felt like there wasn't anyone he could turn to. He never stopped loving you, not even when he was on the dark side, as twisted as his way of showing it ended up being by that point," Aria said gently. "Everything will work out just fine, take all the time you need and go at your own pace. There's no need to rush things."

Padme gave her a small smile. "You know, you're pretty wise for someone your age, but don't think for a moment that I've forgotten what I asked you."

Aria sighed, turning to flip through the dresses once more. "It would never work. Yes, I like him, but unlike you and Anakin, Luke and I are from entirely different universes and times; it could never be. Besides, he's also much older than me."

To Aria's surprise, Padme actually snorted. "the same difference between Anakin and myself is between Luke and you. You're about to turn seventeen, and he's twenty-two. That's five years. Are you going to tell me that I'm too old for Anakin?" Padme scoffed, eyebrow arched. Aria blushed but said nothing, and Padme shook her head. "However...you do have a point. Being from a different universe, never mind another time...you do make a point. It would be a relationship doomed to fail."

* * *

"Not so wide of a stance, Luke, it would be far too easy for me to sweep your legs out from underneath you."

Luke, Anakin, and Obi-Wan were all gathered in the hotel room, having pushed the furniture to the far ends of the room so they would have adequate space in the middle for their activities. Obi-Wan and Anakin had agreed to teach Luke what they knew, and currently Luke was borrowing Anakin's lightsaber while the two instructed him on his lightsaber form. Earlier he'd been practicing his English with Anakin, and he was rather sure that he would be quickly getting the hang of Aria's written language, thankfully.

He had taken notice of the fact that Anakin's lightsaber currently was slightly different than the one Luke had inherited, and he wondered if Anakin had modified it or made a new one at some point in time. Adjusting his footing as Anakin had instructed him to, Luke focused once more on Obi-Wan in front of him. The elder Jedi was frowning, studying Luke's movements closely.

"Have you ever sparred before? I know you've been in a lightsaber fight by now, but have you been able to spar for practice?" he asked in concern. Luke shook his head.

"I've had to practice my lightsaber forms without a partner."

"That explains it, then," Anakin commented.

Obi-Wan ignored his pupil, keeping his attention fixated on Luke. "How about we try to spar every day? I believe that should help, especially since you're such a quick learner."

Luke nodded. "I can do that."

"And remind me to teach you about constructing a lightsaber, as well."

"Oh, I will."

Obi-Wan smiled. "I think you may be a better student than Anakin is."

"Hey!" Anakin protested, looking wounded. "I'm right here!"

"Is that anyway to talk to your Jedi Master?" Obi-Wan chided him, causing Anakin to scowl. "I thought so."

Luke rolled his eyes and raised his lightsaber once more. "All right, I'm ready to continue now."

The two continued to spar, with Anakin watching and giving Luke advice every now and then, until at long last Obi-Wan called a break. Anakin promptly fell back onto the bed he'd been sitting on, a whoosh of air escaping him.

"When are the girls going to come back? I didn't think it would take so long to get clothes," he griped.

"They're women, Anakin; they take pride in their wardrobe. Especially Padme," Obi-Wan informed him.

"Still, you would think they'd be back by now."

"I'm sure they're fine. They should be back anytime, now. The Alliance didn't give them enough credits for them to be out all day buying clothes, just enough for her to get the essentials."

"I hope someone told Padme that."

Luke laughed, and about that moment the door opened. "Told me what?" Padme's voice asked, and Anakin blushed a deep red. Even Obi-Wan started to laugh, though their reactions only caused Padme's eyebrow to arch in suspicious question.

Anakin, luckily, was quick enough to recover and deflect the question, eyeing the bags that were lading down the two girls' arms. "How much did you buy? I thought you were given a limit!"

"We were: we _can_ budget, Anakin," Padme said, much like she was educating a child. Luke's laughter quickly turned into painful coughing when Anakin shot him a deadly look, and eventually they calmed down once more. The girls moved to pack away their newly bought clothes, and as they were doing so Anakin decided to corner Aria with yet another question.

"So, when will you be showing us Episode Five?" he asked curiously, eyes never wavering from Aria as she moved about the room. Aria paused, mulling it over.

"I'm not entirely sure," she said hesitantly. "I mean...The Empire Strikes Back is far worse than A New Hope, and honestly you didn't react that well to the first, and that was the happiest of the three."

Anakin paled slightly, but Aria could see the determined glint in his eyes and she sighed. "All right, fine, but remember that you asked for it," she warned him. "It won't be pleasant; it's known to be the darkest of the three."

She cast her gaze to Luke, who seemed quieter than normal in his own little corner, picking at a spot on his boots idly like he didn't even realize he was doing it. "Luke, you and I can watch Episode Two before they watch Five: I feel like that's a smart decision." She cast her gaze back around to the others. "We can watch them on our way back, after we get done with what we're supposed to be doing here."

Thankfully, Obi-Wan chose that moment to add himself to the conversation. "That's something that we need to figure out, by the way. We know we're supposed to be closing the deal Teeb made with Obath and that we need to rescue Teeb from the detention center here in Phitari. We need to figure out the how for both."

"So which do we do first? Close the deal or make the rescue?" Padme asked pointedly.

"Perhaps we should figure out what the deal is first, that way we can prioritize more accurately," Luke suggested.

Anakin nodded. "We could still scout out the prison to start drawing up plans on how to break Teeb out."

"Who should the negotiation party be?" Aria asked pointedly. "I'd say Padme, but this isn't exactly the Republic, is it?"

"That's no problem," Luke commented, sliding off of his seat upon the bed. "Padme and I can both go talk to Obath while Anakin and Obi-Wan scout out the prison."

Aria frowned. "And what about me."

Luke gave her a small smile. "You can hold down the apartment until we get back, maybe study more of your notes?"

Aria huffed, putting her hands on her hips and ready to argue. However, she didn't follow through, realizing she would probably prefer to skip the scouting and negotiating anyway. Besides, her strength was in knowledge in certain events and people, and she needed to work more on that. She could study her notes more and try and devise a more effective way to stop Palpatine, and she could draw up a safe way to divulge the information she carried with her so as not to overload anyone or accidentally push someone in the wrong direction.

All in all, Luke had a good point, and it would probably be better for her to stay behind and work on her larger plans while they handled the smaller plans for here in the present.

Sighing in defeat, Aria rolled her eyes. "All right, fine. Are we doing that now, or waiting a while?"

"Well, I'll have to find a way to set up the meeting with Obath before we do anything, but Anakin and Obi-Wan can find and scout out the prison right now," Luke commented.

"We'll get right to that, then," Obi-Wan said. "Come one, Anakin."

Anakin sighed, but slid off the bed easily and followed after Obi-Wan, looking for all the world like he was bored out of his mind. Aria had to resist the urge to snicker at the expression on his face, watching him as he left. Once the two were gone, Aria returned to finding a home for her clothes with Padme while Luke struggled over in his corner to set up a meeting with Obath. By the time he had managed to set up the meeting, both girls were dozing on the bed, though they sat at attention whenever he finally finished.

"I was able to get us a small window of time with him; not much, but enough for us to figure out what deal was made and hopefully gain his confidence that we can carry the deal the rest of the way," Luke told Padme, who nodded.

"That's all the time I need," she assured him, and they both turned to Aria. "I assume you'll be fine staying here and waiting for all of us to return."

Aria gave them a smile and fell back on the bed with a relaxed sigh. "Oh yes, I think I'm going to rather enjoy the peace and quiet: play some music, get some things done, maybe take a nap. I'll be fine."

Padme laughed while Luke simply rolled his eyes. "We'll see you in a while, then. Try not to have too much fun without us."

"I will," Aria said with a wink.

* * *

"I can't believe the galaxy has changed so much in just under three decades," Anakin muttered under his breath as Obi-Wan and Anakin casually surveyed the area around them. Obi-Wan snorted softly, eyes roaming the walls, ground, and paths of the alleyways around the Phitari prison.

"Plenty can change in the space of five years, Anakin, let alone three decades," he responded. Anakin rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean."

Obi-Wan briefly tore his eyes away from observing his surroundings to study the people around him before he nodded slowly in agreement with Anakin. "I do…and you're right. And I thought the galaxy we were in was in a terrible state."

Just a few blocks back they had seen militia abuse as they turned a vendor's stall inside and out simply because they were bored and the vendor wasn't human, destroying his products even as the Ithorian had wailed that it was all he had and what he had to live off of. It had taken all of Obi-Wan's self-control to not be the Jedi that he was and step in. If he would have done that, then he would have been killed. Another thing he couldn't believe with the current state of the galaxy: almost no Jedi. What was the universe without the Jedi?

 _Well, it seems we're seeing that now_ , Obi-Wan thought bitterly.

"I hate not being able to do anything," Anakin hissed from behind as they saw a group of Stormtroopers bothering another minority civilian.

"Unfortunately there's nothing we can do other than make the situation worse. We have to stick to what our objective is and keep our heads down, or Luke's rebellion will suffer a painful loss."

Anakin quieted at that, and he didn't comment any further on the subject, though Obi-Wan did feel his spike in distress and agitation every time they passed someone in need. Obi-Wan was experiencing similar feelings, but he was firmly ignoring them, keeping his attention on the area around them.

From their brief rounds around the building, obi-Wan had accounted several routes on the street that they could use as an escape route and he had discovered a Stormtrooper patrolling the perimeter of the prison, with only one entrance inside the compound guarded by two heavily armed Stormtroopers and requiring an Officer's clearance to get inside. Obi-Wan frowned, wondering if there was any way for them to get ahold of the blueprints of the inside of the prison: perhaps that could help the endeavor. There was a dumpster at the back of the prison, and if Obi-Wan was sure he wasn't going to be cutting into the guard's lounge or anything of the like he would suggest cutting an entrance to the prison in the back wall and covering it with the dumpster to hide the evidence from the Stormtrooper on patrol. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure, and he would need more information before attempting such a thing.

So, silently, the two Jedi continued their task of scoping out the surrounding area and other possible ways in and out of the compound.

* * *

"I would say that I'm sorry that it took so long for this meeting to occur, but I'm not, not anymore. I have already realized that you cannot help me, so I will not help your Rebellion."

Luke and Padme stood in the center of Zeven Obath's office inside Obath Incorporation while the man remained seated at his desk, a tortured yet steely gleam in his eyes. Luke kept his calm, as did his mother, whose face remained a perfect mask of diplomatic serenity.

"Mr. Obath, Kennex Teeb failed to provide us with the nature of the agreement between the two of you, which is why we're here today. We want to fulfill our end of the bargain, but we cannot do so if you do not tell us what the bargain was in the first place," she said calmly.

"He already failed, why should I believe that whoever else you send will be any more successful?" Obath argued.

"Because we are going to make sure we have the resources and means to complete the bargain. I assume that the reason Teeb failed was because he was not prepared for the nature of our end of the bargain, and we are going to do everything in our power to fulfill it. We ask nothing more than to know what the nature of your deal with Mr. Teeb was so that we can make necessary preparations. If it would be more pleasing for you, we can fulfill the Rebellion's end of the bargain and then we can sit down and discuss your end of the bargain."

Obath sighed, leaning back and studying Padme. "You are definitely a woman of words. I'm beginning to wonder why you even brought him with you, and the only explanation I can come up with is that he's your bodyguard."

Padme smiled faintly. "My companion here would be one of those doing whatever it is you require to assist the Rebellion. I am simply the diplomatic negotiator."

Obath nodded. "All right…if you can fulfil your end of the deal, I will open myself up to arrangements once more."

Padme nodded. "Thank you Mr. Obath. Now, if I may ask again, what is it that Mr. Teeb promised to do for you before he was imprisoned?"

"That's the thing: he was arrested while trying to break my wife and daughter out of prison and provide them with Rebellion protection. I will not assist the Rebellion so long as my family is at risk of being used against me as weapons of the Empire."


	15. Chapter 15: Plans

_**Thank heavens...I got through this chapter. I had writers block because I wasn't sure how I was going to do all of this or how I would have the breakout go. But tonight I sat myself down and forced myself to write. The updates for this story should start being a little more regular now that I'm passed that. Yaaay!**_

 _ **I apologize for taking so long (I feel like that's all I'm doing these days) and in latter weeks I have no excuse, just that I lacked motivation and ideas. Though my motivation is back and I'm itching to do a lot of writing. Here I am, I'm back. Don't freak out if you don't have an update immediately, some of these stories have nightmarishly long chapters.**_

 _ **PLEASE review, I love the feedback, and sometimes it gets the creative ideas flowing, plus it serves as motivation to keep writing when I'm struggling. I hope you guys stick with me! I'm not giving up on any of my stories! I'm finishing all of them!**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

* * *

"This mission just became a little more complicated."

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Luke, and Aria were all gathered around in Aria's and Padme's hotel room, sharing the information everyone had come up with. Obi-Wan had a small map of the town pulled up and zoomed in on the prison, and everyone was crowded around the single image in various poses of thoughtfulness. Obi-Wan had been the one to speak, and Aria couldn't help but agree with him.

"So are you telling me that the spy that came in was trying to rescue this contact's family, and he got caught too? Are they being kept in the same prison?" Aria asked.

"Supposedly, yes. At least that makes it a little easier in terms of not having to break into more than one prison, though on the other side that also means we'll have to spend longer in the one prison to get them all out," Luke explained.

"So do we have any ideas on how we're going to get them out? I know some of us are experienced in breaking people out of jails of some kind."

"Well, in the back there's a dumpster that could potentially hide a hole in the wall," Anakin commented.

"That may be so, but we don't know what's behind that dumpster. I think we need to get our hands on some blueprints or intel of some kind to actually know what we're cutting into," Obi-Wan added.

"And didn't you say there was only one guard for the parameter? Wouldn't they have at least two?" Aria asked. "At least, that would make sense to me."

"It could be possible—they may have been in the middle of the change of guard that we were there."

"And walking in the front door is definitely not possible—officer's clearance and all," Luke said with a sigh.

"Well, those blueprints…we could find someone who's been in the prison for information perhaps, and draw up some blueprints from what they describe if all else fails and we can't find actual blueprints," Aria suggested.

"Let's try to avoid that, someone might get suspicious if we start asking around for someone to describe the layout of the prison," Padme stated. Aria shrugged.

"It was just an idea."

"I'd say we do a little more reconnaissance now that we know what we're looking for. Maybe if we look in the right places, we can find something that will show us the inside of the prison," Luke stated.

"Makes me wish we'd brought Artoo," Aria muttered, causing Luke to smile if only slightly.

"Yes, well, I didn't think I'd need him. I should have known better."

"Okay…so our next goal is to try and find some blueprints of the prison. That shouldn't be too hard," Anakin said, standing at his full height. Aria suddenly felt very small at the action— _she_ was only five foot six, like Luke.

"Does this mean you're volunteering?" Aria asked.

"Sure, someone has to do it," Anakin replied with a shrug.

"I'll go with him so he doesn't get into any trouble," Padme volunteered after a few moments of silence. "That way Obi-Wan can stay and continue to work with Luke."

"I'm up for that plan!" Aria said, crawling onto the bed and flopping down dramatically. "I'll stay right here and watch. Maybe do some studying and whatnot."

"Or answer questions. That would be nice as well," Obi-Wan said casually.

"Well, we'll leave you three to it and come back when we've found something," Padme said, already stepping around the two still on the floor, causing Obi-Wan to click off his map and Luke to lean out of the way.

"Don't be out too late kids!" Aria called with a grin, causing Anakin to scowl momentarily.

"Don't stay up past your bed time," Anakin retorted, and Aria stuck her tongue out at him before he left, turning to see Obi-Wan giving her an odd look.

"What? Everyone is allowed a little childishness every now and then," Aria said defensively, pushing herself back against the headboard of the bed. "So, what is it that you wanted to ask me?"

"I was wondering, the other day when you advised me to let Anakin go after his mother…that doesn't have anything to do with his fall, does it?" Obi-Wan asked, arching a brow at her as he rose to his feet, Luke close behind him.

"Yes, it does," Aria stated with a sigh. "If he doesn't get there in time to save her it becomes one of his first steps to the dark side. Or at least a major one, one that Sidious will use to manipulate him further. The classic, 'oh you did it this one time so why can't you do it now,' trick."

Obi-Wan nodded, expression serious. "And then earlier we were looking for your paper that has the aurebesh and the alphabet side by side, but we couldn't find it. We made do without, but we were wondering where it went."

"It's probably back in Luke's room," Aria said easily. "Some things it would probably be safer not traveling around with us, like the key to all this information I have on the papers."

 _Luke's room on the Executor. Best not to tell them that I purposely left it with Vader._

Obi-Wan's gaze narrowed at the half-truth he probably sensed, but he didn't push her. Luke decided to speak up then.

"We actually got pretty far with the English lesson. Still can't read it fluently, but I'm still pretty happy with the progress."

Aria nodded. "That's good to hear. Then you can start helping me shift through some of this information—it'll be good practice," she said with a grin. Luke rolled his eyes.

"Figures. You'll turn around and put me to work with something else as soon as I get a break," Luke said with a grin.

"Well, why not?" Aria said innocently.

"Or I could help you with your Force techniques, Luke, there are still those. I wouldn't say you have a break quite yet," Obi-Wan commented.

Luke seemed to repress a sigh, turning to Obi-Wan. "Right…I forgot about those for a moment. Let's work on that—it will save me the paperwork."

Aria snickered. "Should have known better than to ask a Skywalker for help with paperwork…"

Obi-Wan smiled but didn't comment, and within moments he and Luke were at work with expanding his sense of the Force, and Aria was simply shuffling through more papers. In the midst of her reading on the Clone Wars, Aria suddenly made a sound of disgust. "Obi-Wan, there's something wrong with you…"

Obi-Wan stopped in the middle of what he was doing with Luke—who had also stopped—and stared at her. "Excuse me?"

Aria blushed. "Oh…I ah…didn't mean to say that out loud…sorry."

"Where did that even come from?" Obi-Wan inquired further.

"I was reading, don't pay attention to anything I said, I can't tell you what I was reading," Aria said with a wave of her hand.

"Speaking of things you can and can't tell us," Luke suddenly piped up, coming to stand beside the bed. "Have you decided on whether or not you're going to show us the second movies in each other's series?"

Aria sighed, sitting back to lean against the headboard and playing with her highlighter. "I guess…you'll have to start watching without the others—they can't see the movies you're going to see now, since episode two is where they came from, though you can still see the next movie they're going to watch. Episode five has already happened for you."

Luke nodded, stepping away again. "That's fine with me, though Anakin might complain."

Aria snorted. "He'll just have to deal with it. And after he snooped in my computer, I think his complaining about retained information might go down some."

"I just hope they find somewhere that has blueprints," Obi-Wan said pointedly. Aria smiled.

"Well…you guys should focus on the present. I'm the one who has to think in terms of past, present, and future, while keeping everything up here organized so I don't mix something up and make a mistake," Aria said, tapping the side of her head with her highlighter before she stretched out, picking up her stack of papers to resume what she'd been doing.

Luke sighed, turning back to Obi-Wan. "Right…one thing at a time for us."

* * *

"Have you found anything?"

The quiet inquiry thankfully didn't echo in the rather empty library, and Padme looked up from her spot at one of four tables in a clear area. Anakin had emerged from one of the rows of shelves around them, a few data chip candidates for sources that may have _something_ in his hands. Padme nodded, bringing up a projection of what she'd found.

"I think so…it's a little old, but it should be good enough for our purposes. Old maps are better than no maps," she said softly, showing Anakin the building that the chip she currently had projected. "And I had to do some digging in the way back, historical section to find it. But it's definitely what we want."

Anakin came to stand beside her, studying the building and highlighting a certain spot of wall. "This is where we were, the spot where the dumpster was. What's behind it?"

Padme shifted the image, bringing it to a view inside from above. "Stairs. Not the top of them either—there's a drop on the other side of that wall, and a steep one too."

Anakin zoomed in on the image, studying the drop-off and the rest of the floor. "It's not that bad. At least now we know that all the actual cells are underground. That makes it a little more difficult."

"Come on, let's just take this back to the hotel room so that we don't have to worry about someone finding us researching this. It's best if we don't raise suspicion early."

Anakin nodded, taking the chip from her to pocket and starting to gather up the rest of the material they'd unearthed. "Okay—we'll put this back and go."

"Agreed," Padme said quietly, gathering a stack as well before they split up to put everything away and then go.

* * *

Luke looked up from where he'd been sitting with Aria going over a little more English, his improving Force Senses tingling. "They're back."

Aria sighed happily, sitting up. "Oh goodie, that means a break from all this. If I would have known I was going to be over my head in paperwork I might have considered coming a little longer."

"Well, do you really have to be looking at all of this constantly?" Luke questioned. Aria shook her head.

"Not really…well…right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to take down the Emperor in the Prequel time, while trying to figure out how to keep us all alive in this time. Plus, I've got a few things I need to think of how I'm going to carefully go about. There are a few cards I've got that I want to play very, very carefully. Some cards that are going to backfire no matter what since a lot of people will be mad I kept them secret."

"That's a wonderful confidence booster, Aria."

"You know, you two make it very difficult to meditate," came Obi-Wan's even voice from over by the window, and Aria smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, Obi-Wan. But you have to get up anyway because the others are back and we need to get to planning."

"I know that—I'm just trying to emphasize the principle," Obi-Wan said with a sigh, getting to his feet.

"Always in teacher mode, Obi-Wan," Aria chided with a smile as the door opened and Padme and Anakin walked in.

"Did you find anything?" Luke asked, and Padme gave him a gentle smile.

"As a matter of fact, we did. It's old, but we found a layout of the prison, at least enough for us to find a way in and out," Padme explained, taking the datapad off of the table and putting in a chip Anakin handed her into the device. With a few taps, she had pulled up the display for everyone to see, and once more everyone huddled around the datapad on the floor.

"I already pointed out that the spot where the dumpster is we mentioned is here, which has a drop on the other side as the stairs are there leading down into the compound," Anakin said, gesturing to the spot.

"Which means that the cells are underground. That makes this a little more difficult," Luke murmured, studying the top floor. "Do we have any way of knowing which cell our targets are in?"

"Not unless you get inside a security terminal…I'm guessing," Aria chipped in.

"Do we at least know what they look like?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yes, we do have a picture of the spy from the briefing, and Zeven Obath did give us a holo of his wife and child," Luke said, tapping the edge of the datapad. "It's all in here already."

Obi-Wan nodded. "We should all memorize what they look like before we act, just to be safe."

"We will, don't worry. Right now we need to focus on how we're going to get in and out, and who will be where."

"Does it show the lower levels?" Aria asked.

"Yes, but I'm not so confident in that information—they could have expanded or renovated since this was published," Padme stated.

"That part we'll have to take with a grain of salt—we may want to simply find the nearest security terminal, like Aria said, and go from there," Anakin suggested.

"So we're going in behind this dumpster, right?" Luke asked, pointing to the spot.

"I would assume so," Anakin replied.

"What about the security cameras, how are we going to deal with those without raising suspicion?" Padme pointed out.

"We could knock out the power for this section of the city," Aria suggested.

"Backup power generators," Luke countered.

"Then the security will have to be handled from the inside," Anakin replied easily.

"I can do that," Obi-Wan said with a secretive smile.

"Does that mean Anakin and I are going in to rescue?" Luke asked.

"You're leaving the girls out again," Aria sang.

Luke rolled his eyes. "We're going into the heart of an Imperial prison—"

"And I can't handle myself?" Padme asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well we need someone to keep an eye out on our entrance and someone to tell us if an alarm is being raised. One person might be suspicious, but two people simply hanging out together, that's a little less noticeable," Luke said pointedly.

"I actually don't mind being in the action without being in the middle of it," Aria admitted. "I'm not exactly a Jedi Knight/Master/Padawan or a kick butt Senator."

"Maybe you should take the time to do some training with us," Luke suggested.

"Maybe…"

"We're getting off track," Obi-Wan chided. "So, we're looking at Padme and Aria acting as lookouts, I'm taking care of security, and Luke and Anakin are conducting the rescues."

"That's what it looks like right now," Anakin said with a nod.

"What about getting out? What are we doing with our rescued members? Everyone's going to be looking for them, we've still got to cement the deal with Obath, and the longer we're here the harder it's going to be to get off the planet," Aria asked.

Obi-Wan leaned back, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "We could establish communications with Obath so that when we've broken out his family and are safely transporting them elsewhere, we can finalize the deal over the transmission. We may want to go there early if he wants something signed."

"Which would mean Luke and I have to go back before we break out his family," Padme said with a nod.

"Should we bring the three onto our ship? Or set up another way off the planet, maybe have the spy take them somewhere safe on a different ship?" Aria suggested.

"It'll be difficult to get them off planet in general with the security at all the landing bays," Luke admitted. "But we can get ahold of some hair dies, give some haircuts, and there's always facial putty to change their appearances so it's easier to get them past security. It should be at least a little easier since we're not trying to smuggle weapons."

"But still, should it be on a separate ship?" Aria asked.

"Probably—we might end up with people who recognize us and are wondering why we have three new people, and as slim of a possibility that may be, I'd rather not risk it," Anakin stated.

"Well, let's do some fine tuning before we head back to Obath so we actually have details to give him if he asks," Padme said pointedly.

"That sounds fine with me," Aria said with a sigh, getting up and flopping down on the bed. "I'll just listen from up here while you guys chat."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Don't fall asleep."

"Don't worry, I won't."

* * *

Once the plans were laid out everyone dispersed to their own rooms, with Anakin and Obi-Wan receiving one room, Padme another, and Luke and Aria another as the hotel they were in only provided two person rooms. It was late, probably the middle of the night, and everyone was fast asleep.

Well, Aria was, until she heard something from the other bed that woke her. She raised her head groggily, her first instinct—being in the Star Wars universe surrounded by Skywalkers—being to make sure no one was trying to kill them. When she saw that the room was empty besides her and Luke, and the sound persisted, she sat up a little more and squinted to see Luke through the darkness.

He wasn't tangled up in his sheets, but he wasn't sleeping peacefully either. Instead he seemed to be drenched in sweat, breathing labored as his head tossed from side to side, shifting restlessly in the bed every now and then. Slipping out of her own bed, when Aria came close enough she could see that he was still fast asleep despite all of the activity, though she stopped just short of the bed.

She wanted to be careful enough she didn't trigger some soldier instinct. She'd heard plenty of stories about PTSD, and if any Star Wars character had the right to have PTSD, it was Luke.

Or Obi-Wan.

Stopping herself from having any stray thoughts at the moment, Aria tried simply waking Luke from a safe distance vocally. "Luke…Luke…Luke, wake up," she said softly. Unfortunately, he didn't respond, and she sighed, getting close enough to shake his arm vigorously. "Luke, wake up."

Luke's movements became a little more animated for a moment, with him rolling onto his side and his arm moving like an overcooked noodle to bat her hand away, though now he was shivering, and Aria pursed her lips, watching him for a second before she went to her backpack, pulling out her portable speaker and her IPod, hooking the two up as she went back over to Luke's bed. She kept the volume low as she searched for the right song, and then the right part of the song, then placed the speaker on the nightstand right next to Luke's head, turned it up loud enough that it would definitely wake him, but not the people in the rooms next to them, and then hit play.

Instantly, the rock band Red was screaming 'Wake up!' from their song Faceless right by his head, and Luke's entire body jumped as he rocketed back to reality, looking around wide awake for the offender with chest heaving and eyes wide. Aria reached over and turned off the speaker, then the IPod.

"Sorry," she said sincerely. "I couldn't wake you up otherwise, and I didn't want to soak your bed with water or risk hitting you and you think you were being attacked."

Luke centered on her, still disoriented. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You were having a nightmare," Aria said simply. "It looked like a nasty one too."

Luke leaned over, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Next time just throw water on me, okay?"

"Got it," Aria said in mild amusement, sitting on the side of his bed. "So are you okay? With the nightmare, I mean…"

Luke looked up at her, shaking his head with a sigh. "Nothing I won't be able to live with."

Aria nodded, messing idly with her fingers. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, no," Luke replied softly, an awkward silence falling between them. Aria allowed it to linger for a little bit, and then filled the silence with her own inquiry.

"It was about Bespin, wasn't it? Or at least the Executor…"

Luke intertwined his fingers, looking up at her and giving a silent nod, offering no words of confirmation. Aria sighed, looking down and allowing the silence to resume for a few moments before she spoke again.

"I'm no expert on it, but I'm sure…with time…it'll get better," she suggested.

"I hope you're right," he finally said, his voice barely audible. Aria nodded, looking back up at him.

"We can do that questions game again to get your mind off of it so you can go back to sleep," she suggested, and Luke smiled, even if it was a small smile.

"Sure…who starts this time?"

"I will—you need more questions than me." Aria chewed her lip, debating. "Least favorite planet?"

"Easy—Tatooine. Favorite song?"

"That's an evil question and you know it," Aria laughed. "I don't know; I love a lot of songs…Let Me Go by Avril Lavigne feature Chad Kroeger. That's an awesome song…maybe I'll play it for you one day."

"I look forward to it," Luke said with a smile, and Aria shifted to sit beside him on the bed. "Are you a morning or a night person?"

"Evening. It's not too early, and it's not too late," Aria said with a laugh. "Favorite sweet?"

"I'm actually rather fond of chocolate, the rare times I've gotten ahold of some of it," Luke said, lying back down. "What's your favorite Star Wars Movie?"

Aria snorted lying down as well a respectful distance away. "As weird as you may think I am for it once you've seen more, Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi…though I can't even stand to watch all of Revenge of the Sith."

"Fair enough."

"Okay…what's your favorite Force ability so far?"

"The mind tricks…definitely the mind tricks, though I can't do them that well yet myself. What about you?"

"This thing in the books called electric judgement. I don't know if it's a real ability, but if it is, then definitely that one. It's basically green lightning a Jedi produces."

"Wow…I didn't know about that."

"You used it in the books—you were rather proficient with it too."

"Really? I'll have to look into that…that would be a handy and cool skill to have…"

Back and forth they went with questions and comments, coming to know each other on a deeper level through the night until, eventually, they fell asleep side by side without any warning.

And neither of them suffered another nightmare.


End file.
